classic waka stream

  • Top
  • -
  • Masukagami

Minaseyama wagafurusatowa arenuramu magakiwanorato hitomokayowade

The hills of Minase: my old home must be in ruins by now, its hedges gone back to open field, with no one passing there.

Masukagami - Go-Toba In

show detail

Kazashioru hitomoarabaya kototowan okinomiyamani sugiwamiyuredo

If only there were someone here to break a sprig for his hair, I would send word by him. Cedars are to be seen in the deep hills of Oki, and yet.

Masukagami - Go-Toba In

show detail

Kagiriareba satemotaekeru minousayo taminowarayani nokionarabete

Since limits are set to all things I have borne it even so—the bitterness of this life, my eaves standing beside the straw huts of the common people.

Masukagami - Go-Toba In

show detail

Omoiizuru koromohakanashi waremohitomo mishiniwaarazu tadoraruruyoni

The days I remember, and this robe, are alike fleeting. Neither you nor I are what we were, in a world through which we grope our way.

Masukagami - Higashi Ichijoin

show detail

Kiekanuru inochizotsuraki onajiyoni arumotanomiwa kakenuchigirio

It is hard that this life will not go out. We are in the same world, and yet it is a bond on which no hope can be laid.

Masukagami - Higashi Ichijoin

show detail

Ushitomishi arishiwakarewa fujigoromo yagatekirubeki kadodenarikeri

That parting I once found so hard was the setting out that would soon bring me to wear this mourning robe.

Masukagami - Kozaisho

show detail

Kanashisawa ukiyonotogato somukedomo tadakoishisano nagusamezonaki

I told myself that sorrow was the world's own fault and turned my back on it; but for longing alone there is no comfort.

Masukagami - Mibu no Kyo no Naishi no Suke

show detail

Hitogokoro utsurihatenuru hananoironi mukashinagarano yamananonamoushi

Men's hearts have faded utterly, like the colour of the blossoms; and seeing it, even the hill whose name means unchanged from of old has become hateful to me.

Masukagami - Go-Toba In

show detail

Nazomokaku omoisomeken sakurabana yamatoshitakaku narihatsurumade

Why have I been so deeply dyed with longing, cherry blossoms, until it has risen as high as the mountain itself?

Masukagami - Fujiwara no Ietaka

show detail

Watanohara yasoshimakakete shirubeseyo harukanikayou okinotsuribune

Across the wide sea, past the eighty islands, guide me there—fishing boat that plies so far out in the offing.

Masukagami - Fujiwara no Hideyoshi

show detail

Nokibaarete tarekaminaseno yadonotsuki sumikoshimamano iroyasabishiki

The eaves have fallen in, and who is there to look at the moon over the house at Minase? Its light, clear as when I lived there, must be lonely now.

Masukagami - Go-Toba In

show detail

Sabishisawa madaminushimano yamazatoo omoiyarunimo sumukokochishite

Loneliness is this: that merely to imagine a mountain village on an island I have never seen gives me the feeling of living there.

Masukagami - Fujiwara no Ietaka

show detail

Warenagara utomihatenuru minoueni namidabakarizo omogawarisenu

Even to myself I have grown wholly hateful; and on this life of mine only the tears keep the face they always wore.

Masukagami - Go-Toba In

show detail

Furusatowa irinuruisono kusayotada yūshiomichite mirakusukunaki

My old home is like the grass on a shore the tide has entered: as the evening water fills, the times of seeing it grow few.

Masukagami - Go-Toba In

show detail

Inishieni naonomikikite motomeken mikaminoyamawa korezosonoyama

The mountain of the three gods, which the ancients heard of only by name and went out to seek: this is that very mountain.

Masukagami - Sugawara no Tamenaga

show detail

Suetōki chiyonokagekoso hisashikere madafutabanaru iwasakinomatsu

Long indeed is the shade of a thousand ages that lies ahead—though the pine of Iwasaki is still no more than two leaves.

Masukagami - Fujiwara no Tsunemitsu

show detail