Years Have Passed Poem by Sugawara Takesue no Musume

Years have passed and only sounds of waters have come to my ears,
To-day, indeed, I may even count the ripples around the fishing net.

The pattern of the maple leaves in Autumn dyed with the rain -
Beautiful in the deep mountain!

The sound of the mountain brook gives an illusion of rain drops,
Yet the calm of the waning moon shines over all.

Even in our wandering journey,
The lonely moon accompanies us lighting us from the sky,
The waning moon I used to gaze at in the Royal City.

Undying affection!
Can it end at last, overlaid with time
Even as snow covers the land in the Northern Province?


Even a little pebble does not cease to be,
Though pressed under the snow of Hakusan;
So is my affection even though hidden.

Far from towns, in the heart of the mountain,
The cherry blooms, and wastes its blooms away
With none to see.

The outer world of many sorrows
Is not to be forgotten even here.
At the sound of the evening bell
Lonely grows my heart.