classic waka stream

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  • Genji Monogatari

Toshi kurete iwai no mizu mo kōritoji
mishi hitokage no ase mo yuku kana

The year ends, the water of the rock spring is sealed with ice, and the face we used to see is fading from us too.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Kokoro kara katagata sode o nurasu kana
aku to oshiuru koe ni tsukete mo

It is my own heart that wets my sleeves on this side and that—and this voice too, calling out that day has come.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Nagekitsutsu waga yo wa kakute suguse to ya
mune no akubeki toki zo to mo naku

Am I to spend my whole life this way, grieving, with never an hour when the heart is eased?

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Au koto no kataki o kyō ni kagirazu wa
ima ikuyo o ka nagekitsutsu hemu

If the hardness of our meeting is not a thing of today alone, through how many lives to come must I go on grieving?

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Nagaki yo no urami o hito ni nokoshite mo
katsu wa kokoro o ada to shiranamu

Though you leave me a bitterness that lasts through lives to come, know also how faithless your own heart is.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Asajū no tsuyu no yadori ni kimi o okite
yomo no arashi zo shizugokoro naki

Having left you in a dwelling frail as dew on a plain of low reeds, it is the storm on every side that gives my heart no rest.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Kaze fukeba mazu zo midaruru iro kawaru
asaji ga tsuyu ni kakaru sasagani

When the wind blows, the first thing thrown into disarray is the spider's thread on the dew of reeds already changing color.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Kakemaku wa kashikokeredomo sonokami no
aki omooyuru yūdasuki kana

It is a fearful thing even to speak of, and yet this mulberry cord brings back to me that autumn long ago.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Sonokami ya ikaga wa arishi yūdasuki
kokoro ni kakete shinoburamu yue

And what was that autumn, then, that a mulberry cord should be laid upon your heart and remembered so?

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Kokonoe ni kiri ya hedatsuru kumo no ue no
tsuki o haruka ni omoiyaru kana

Is it mist that stands between us in this ninefold palace, that I must think of the moon above the clouds from so far off?

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Tsukikage wa mishi yo no aki ni kawaranu o
hedatsuru kiri no tsuraku mo aru kana

The moonlight is no different from the autumns of the world we knew; it is the mist between us that is cruel.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Kogarashi no fuku ni tsuketsutsu machishi ma ni
obotsukanasa no koro mo henikeri

Waiting at every gust of the withering wind, I have let the days go by without ever knowing how you were.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Aimizute shinoburu koro no namida o mo
nabete no sora no shigure to ya miru

Do you take the tears of these days apart, when I hold myself back, for no more than the showers of an ordinary sky?

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Wakarenishi kyō wa kuredomo mishi hito ni
yukiau hodo o itsu to tanomamu

The day we parted has come round again; but when may I count on the time when I shall meet him once more?

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Nagarauru hodo wa ukeredo yukimeguri
kyō wa sono yo ni au kokochi shite

To go on living is a wretched thing; and yet, the year having come round, today I feel as if I had met those days again.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Tsuki no sumu kumoi o kakete shitau tomo
kono yo no yami ni nao ya madowamu

Though I set my heart on the cloudy height where the moon shines clear and follow you there, shall I not still wander in this world's darkness?

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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