Yoshida Kenko 兼好

c. 1330

With nothing to do, I sit all day before my inkstone, writing down without order or purpose the trifles that drift through my mind, and it gives me a strange, half-crazed feeling.

つれづれなるままに、日くらし、すずりに向かひて、心にうつりゆくよしなしごとを、そこはかとなく書きつくれば、あやしうこそものぐるほしけれ。

Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness), the preface

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c. 1330 · Adashino and Toribeyama were Kyoto's burial ground and cremation ground

If the dew on Adashino never vanished and the smoke over Toribeyama never cleared, if it were our way to live on for ever, how little there would be to move us. It is because the world is uncertain that it is precious.

あだし野の露消ゆる時なく、鳥部山の煙立ち去らでのみ住み果つるならひならば、いかにもののあはれもなからむ。世は定めなきこそいみじけれ。

Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness), section 7

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c. 1330

Are we to look at blossoms only in full bloom, at the moon only when it is cloudless?

花は盛りに、月は隈なきをのみ見るものかは。

Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness), section 137

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c. 1330 · The holy man Shokai had led a party on a pilgrimage to the Izumo shrine in Tamba

The stone lion and guardian dog before the shrine stood back to back, facing the wrong way. The holy man was deeply moved. "How wonderful! The way this lion stands is most unusual. There must be a profound reason," he said, his eyes filling with tears. "Gentlemen, have you not noticed this marvel? That is too bad of you."

御前なる獅子・狛犬、背きて、後ろさまに立ちたりければ、上人いみじく感じて、「あなめでたや。この獅子の立ちやう、いとめづらし。深きゆゑあらむ。」と涙ぐみて、「いかに殿ばら、殊勝のことは御覧じとがめずや。むげなり。」

Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness), section 236

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c. 1330 · The holy man had called over a grave, knowing-looking priest and asked to be told the tradition behind the way the lions were placed

"Ah, that. Some naughty children did it. It is really too bad," he said, and he went up, set them right, and walked away. The holy man's tears of awe had been for nothing.

「そのことに候ふ。さがなき童べどもの、つかまつりける、奇怪に候ふことなり。」とて、さし寄りて、すゑ直して往にければ、上人の感涙いたづらになりにけり。

Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness), section 236, the ending

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