classic waka stream

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  • Kagero Nikki

Yorozuyo o nobe no atari ni sumu hito wa meguru meguru ya aki o matsuramu

Living out ten thousand ages beside the fields, does she wait through all their turning for autumn to come again?

Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

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Furu yuki ni tsumoru toshi o ba yo o hetsutsu kiemu go mo naki mi o zo uramuru

Living on through years that pile as the snow piles down, I find no appointed season for my melting; and it is myself I blame.

Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

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Yo no uchi wa matsu ni mo tsuyu wa kakarikeri akureba kiyuru mono koso omoe

Within the night the dew had settled even on the waiting pine; and now I know it for a thing that vanishes when day comes.

Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

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Uguisu mo go mo naki mono ya omouramu minazuki hatenu ne o zo naku naru

Does the warbler too brood on something with no term set to it? I hear it crying, in this sixth month, with a voice not yet spent.

Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

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Nakikaeru koe zo kioite kikoyu naru machi ya shitsuramu seki no higurashi

Voice answering voice, they reach me contending with each other. Had they been waiting for us, these cicadas at the barrier?

Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

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Urayamashi koma no ashi toku hashirii no

How I envy them: the colts are quick of foot, and here at Hashirii, where the water runs —

Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

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Shimizu ni kage wa yodomu mono ka wa

Could a reflection ever lie still in water that runs? It could not.

Kagero Nikki

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Ukiyo o ba kabakari mitsu no hamabe nite namida ni nagori ari ya to zo mishi

Having seen just how bitter this world can be, on the shore at Mitsu I looked to see whether my tears had left any wash behind them.

Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

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Inazuma no hikari dani minu yagakure wa nokiba no nae mo mono omourashi

Here in the shadow of the house, where not even the lightning's flash reaches, the seedlings at the eaves too seem to be brooding.

Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

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Sasagani no ima wa to kagiru suji nite mo kakute wa shibashi taeji to zo omou

Though the spider's thread be drawn now to its end, even so I think this at least shall not break for a little while yet.

Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

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Taeki to mo kiku zo kanashiki toshitsuki o ikani kakekoshi kumo naranaku ni

To hear that it has broken is what grieves me. Through all these years, how have you spun and stretched it? You are no cloud, to vanish away.

Kagero Nikki

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Arasoeba omoi ni waburu amagumo ni mazu soru taka zo kanashikarikeru

When we fell to arguing, unable to bear our thoughts, it was the hawk that first went off toward the clouds — that first took the tonsure; and that is what grieves me.

Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

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Omoi seku mune no himura wa tsurenakute namida o wakasu mono ni zarikeru

The banked fire in my breast, which dams my thoughts in, wears an indifferent face; and all the while it is what brings my tears to the boil.

Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

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Uchiharau chiri nomi tsumoru samushiro o nageku shiki ni wa shikaji to zo omou

This narrow matting, where only dust piles up however I sweep it — even so, it cannot match the bedding down of my grief.

Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

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Nabiku kana omowanu kata ni kuretake no ukiyo no sue wa kaku koso arikere

How it leans, and toward a quarter I never looked for. So this, then, is what the far end of a hard world comes to.

Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

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Furu ame no ashi tomo otsuru namida kana komaka ni mono o omoi kudakeba

Tears that fall until they might be taken for the rain's own threads — since I break my thoughts so finely, and break with them.

Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

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