The Tanka in Translation Page

Why translate Japanese in Latin and Greek?
I picked these particular poems becasue they illustrate some of the differences between the Western and Eastern Classical traditions. This selection consists of poems from Japan's Heian period. I may be adding some Haiku, Sino-japanese Zen poems and Chinese poems later in separate files linked to this page.
You can read them just for the Japanese verse or contemplate the translations or use them for classroom excerises if you wish? I would specially like to hear from any experts on Classical Japanese who are Japanese since I had to check the English paraphrases with limited resources - my Japanese, Modern or Classical, is of the limp through with the aid of a dictionary variety!!! (Two kanji dictionaries and some old notes from Morris). Please note that while the notes and vocabulary come from my files complied from a variety of sources over the years the English paraphrases are not mine unless I have specifically stated so! Blush some of those notes have been sitting in my files for so long I've forgotten which anthology I took them from! My apologies for that!

NOTES: Japanese poets seem to regard the dreamstate as almost another type of reality - Buddhist influence? The world was seen as an illusion with the highest reality being described by the the belief "Mind is Buddha"? Petronius also depicts dreams but for most Western Classical authors dreams are either omens or delusion not escape.
VOCABULARY:
ika - what, ni - postion particle, semu - form of SU take action do etc, shibashi = if, uchinuru = compound verb uchi - an intensifier plus nu(ru), hodo = when while as, mogana is a compound of mo ga na, hito = this person, yo = world age time of life state of being, bakari = only, no postposition = "of" linked to, yume = dream, o - another postposition, dani = damo even at least as much as, miru usually = see, in this context = try to?
Japanese seems to prefer the conditional to the indicative!?!? Here's a Latin version = I used the Subjunctive to express a rhetorical question in the first line.
Quid faciam? Si namque punctum somnum capere possim
Ipse somnium invenio ut tota nox permaneat.
Do in Latin can be expressed as facere or sometimes agito. While Sleep is Somnus Dream is Neuter Somnium. Note punctum - the idea also with stigmee being that a minute is a part of a greater continuum. Darthanoo and dormio (if I'ld used that verb) have similar stems - DarTh and DoR. Night is nuks in Greek and Noks in Latin. In English we dropped the k before the T even though we spell the word with a - gh! German Nacht retains the k sound as a fricative! English like Modern Irish has dropped many medial and final fricatives! N.B> With all three languages we have the problem of having to find the "stem" or radical to establish the "dictionary" form. Japanese and English also have the homonym problem. English uses variant spelling. Japanese uses orthography combining phonetic kana with ideogrammatic kanji. Both languages "PUN" on assonance - delibarate resemblances of sounds.
A Greek version. tis poioo? ei monon dunoomai katadarthanein alla gar stigmeen
kai autos euriskoo oneironoti menei dia holou nukhtos

Note: Anxiety as a major theme! Or is Teika indulging in some self mockery and irony. He was a "professional" court poet who was appointed to oversee an Imperial anthology of contemporary verse. It was his job to worry about such things!
Vocabulary.
Note the translator seems to have inserted the phrase anxious over flowers for the reinforcing effect? The Japanese seems to be "from the direction of the belly", Tsuki = moon, o- postposition, shimu a verb to regret, to - another postposition, sugishikite - verb to spend time do something to excess, yuki - snow, no - postposition, zo - emphaitc marker "underlining" a point or opinion, tsumoru - verb to be piled up , toshi = year, wa - another postposition and shiraruru - Verb ???a form of shiru - know learn??/ I could use some help with that one?
A Greek version - Adeemonoon amphi anthou akhthomonos tees seleenees
aphieemi khronon eoos ai heemeria poiountai etous neneesmenous homoios auteen khiona
A Latin Version - Anxius de floribus, et trepidus de luna,
Tempus emitto, donec dies annos similis hae niues cumulatae fiunt.

NOTES: Saigyo is a major Japanese poet who influenced many later haiku poets like BASHO. His secular name before he became a monk-priest was Fujiwara Sato Norikiyo and he came from a military rather than a courtly family. Aware is a word (AI is the kanji ) variously translated as awareness pity sympathy empathy sorrow and emotional experience of an intense nature. Mono no aware. There is also a ironic buddhist theme - saigyo should be free of emotions but still has feelings. A Stoic author seeking the ideal of apatheia might satirize himself for such a reaction?
Vocabulary: kokoro - heart centre of feelings emotions, naki a negative verb, mi = body / self, ni is a postposition referring to his emotional state and mo here perjpas = yet or also alas , aware has been explained above, shirare is a verb to know learn have an experience and keri a adverbial suffix expressing surprise , shigi is japanese for snipe tatsu - to rise up in this case from a marsh sawa . aki is autmn and yugure means its very late in both autmn and the day on the edge of both winter and the night!
several commentators have noted there may be a delibarate resonance of shigi and shirare-keri with the verb shigeru to grow rank and thick - saigyo's feelings are still wild much to his shock like the wild growth of the marsh?

This poem reminds me of some of Horace's Rural Odes particularly his Mt Soracte one altho that's set in a different season. I like the verb kasanete - it implies the clouds lie in heavy layers that are "SERIOUS" and dense. Does anyone know what part of Japan Tatsuyama and Ogura are in? Hana is a generic word for blossom - many translators render this as cherry and they shouldnt? The Japanese admired many forms of blossom! niou linked with rashi - well niou = fragant but rashi intensfies the image and can mean seem to in some contexts. Does Teika mena the blossoms seem closer cos of the intense color contrasts?
Here's a latin version - Albae nebulae supermontes / longe apud tatsutam propagat / cum ver incipit dorsum montis oguri / cum florum odoram . ( or for the final line flores odorari videtur?) And here's one in Greek - Makran Tazutaze leukai nephelai plassei/ana lophos hoos ear dokei lampein / meta anthoi ozein.