How is it that ducks
are able to stay afloat
out on the water,
while I feel myself sinking
even here on the land?
From: Carter, Steven D. (ed. and transl.), Traditional Japanese Poetry: An Anthology, 1991, Stanford University Press: Stanford, California, p. 150.
(https://books.google.com.au/books?id=dq7TOrkTCP0C)
Date: c1188 (original in Japanese); 1991 (translation in English)
By: Fujiwara no Shunzei (1114-1204)
Translated by: Steven D. Carter (19??- )
From Troubles of The World 