Wanting to Preserve by Fujiwara no Tamekane (Kyōgoku Tamekane)

Wanting to preserve
the seeds of the human heart
for eternity,
we return to the deep past —
the source of words in Japanese.

From: Hamill, Sam, Only Companion: Japanese Poems of Love and Longing, 2013, Shambhala: Boston & London, p. [unnumbered].
(https://books.google.com.au/books?id=f2CR_F6m360C)

Date: c1300 (original in Japanese); 1997 (translation in English)

By: Fujiwara no Tamekane (Kyōgoku Tamekane) (1254-1332)

Translated by: Sam Hamill (1943- )