classic waka stream

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  • Genji Monogatari

Uguisu no koe ni ya itodo akugaren
kokoro shimetsuru hana no atari ni

At the warbler's voice my heart will wander further still from me, here where it is already dyed fast to these flowering boughs.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Iro mo ka mo utsuru bakari ni kono haru wa
hana saku yado o karezu mo aranan

Until their color and their scent have passed to you, do not, this spring, go away from this house where the flowers are in bloom.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Uguisu no negura no eda mo nabiku made
nao fukitōse yowa no fuetake

Blow on, flute of the deep night, until even the branch where the warbler roosts bends before the sound.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Kokoro arite kaze no sakumeru hana no ki ni
toriaenu made fuki ya yorubeki

Even the wind, it seems, has the grace to keep clear of these flowering boughs; should I blow my way so near that the birds can bear no more?

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Kasumi dani tsuki to hana to o hedatezu wa
negura no tori mo hokorobinamashi

If only the haze did not stand between the moon and the flowers, the bird on its roost would open its throat and sing.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Hana no ka o e naranu sode ni utsushi mote
koto ayamari to imo ya togamemu

If I carry this flower scent home in so fine a sleeve, my lady will surely charge me with having gone astray.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Mezurashi to furusatobito mo machi zo mimu
hana no nishiki o kite kaeru kimi

What a rare sight, they will say at home, and wait to look at you—coming back in the brocade of flowers.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Tsurenasa wa ukiyo no tsune ni nariyuku o
wasurenu hito ya hito ni kotonaru

Your coldness grows more and more like the common way of this sad world; is it only I, who cannot forget, who am unlike the rest?

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Kagiri tote wasuregataki o wasururu mo
ko ya yo ni nabiku kokoro naruramu

To say all is over, and so forget what cannot be forgotten—is this the sort of heart that bends before the way of the world?

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Waga yado no fuji no iro koki tasokare ni
tazune ya wa konu haru no nagori o

In the dusk, when the wisteria of my house glows dark, will you not come and seek out what remains here of the spring?

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Nakanaka ni ori ya madowamu fuji no hana
tasokaredoki no tadotadoshiku wa

Rather, I might be at a loss how to pluck it, this wisteria, if the dusk should leave me too uncertain of my way.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Murasaki ni kagoto wa kakemu fuji no hana
matsu yori sugite uretakeredomo

On the purple wisteria, then, will I lay my grievance—though it galls me that it should climb and flower out beyond the pine.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Iku kaeri tsuyukeki haru o sugushi kite
hana no himo toku ori ni auramu

How many a dew-heavy spring have I passed, to come at last to this—the hour when the flower unlooses its bud?

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Taoyame no sode ni magaeru fuji no hana
miru hito kara ya iro mo masaramu

The wisteria one might mistake for a slender girl's sleeve—its color too may deepen, according to who beholds it.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Asaki na o ii nagashikeru Kawaguchi wa
ikaga morashishi seki no aragaki

That river mouth of yours, which noised abroad my shallow name—how did it let slip the tale of the rough fence at the barrier?

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Morinikeru Kukita no seki o Kawaguchi no
asaki ni nomi wa ōsezaranan

Do not lay it all to the shallow river mouth—that the barrier of Kukita, which we thought sealed, let the secret leak away.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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