classic waka stream

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  • Genji Monogatari

Yo o wakare irinamu michi wa okuru tomo
onaji tokoro o kimi mo tazune yo

Though you come after me on the road I took in parting from this world, seek out that same place yourself.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Ukiyo ni wa aranu tokoro no yukashikute
somuku yamaji ni omoi koso ire

Drawn as I am to a place that is not of this wretched world, I too send my thoughts along the mountain road of those who have turned away.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Uki fushi mo wasurezu nagara kuretake no
ko wa sutegataki mono ni zo arikeru

I have not forgotten the hard passages of it, and yet this child has turned out to be a thing I cannot cast away.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Koto ni idete iwanu mo iu ni masaru to wa
hito ni hajitaru keshiki o zo miru

That to say nothing outdoes the saying of it—I can see as much in the look of one who is shy before others.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Fukaki yo no aware bakari wa kikiwakedo
koto yori gao ni e ya wa hikikeru

The feeling of the deep night I could make out; but could I have played as though to put on my face what the strings might say?

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Tsuyu shigeki mugura no yado ni inishie no
aki ni kawaranu mushi no koe kana

Here at this weed-grown house where the dew lies heavy, the insect voices have not changed at all from the autumns of long ago.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Yokobue no shirabe wa koto ni kawaranu o
munashiku narishi ne koso tsukisene

The flute's measure has not changed at all; yet the weeping for the one who came to nothing is a sound that never ends.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Fuetake ni fukiyoru kaze no koto naraba
sue no yo nagaki ne ni tsutaenamu

If the wind that gathers to the flute's bamboo is the same wind, then let it be handed down to a root that runs on through long ages.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Hachisuba o onaji utena to chigiriokite
tsuyu no wakaruru kyō zo kanashiki

We promised each other one and the same lotus seat, and yet how sad this day is, when the dew upon the leaf has been parted in two.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Hedate naku hachisu no yado o chigirite mo
kimi ga kokoro ya sumaji to suramu

Though you promise us one lotus dwelling with nothing set between, your heart, I think, will never settle there or be clear.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Ōkata no aki o ba ushi to shirinishi o
furisutegataki suzumushi no koe

Autumn in general I have come to know as a hard thing; and even so, what I cannot shake off is the voice of the bell cricket.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Kokoro mote kusa no yadori o itoedomo
nao suzumushi no koe zo furisenu

Of your own accord you turned away from this lodging in the grass, and still the bell cricket's voice has not grown old at all.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Kumo no ue o kakehanaretaru sumika ni mo
mono wasure senu aki no yo no tsuki

Even to a house set far apart from above the clouds it comes and does not forget—this moon of the autumn night.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Tsukikage wa onaji kumoi ni mienagara
waga yado kara no aki zo kawareru

The moonlight is there in the same sky as always; it is from my own house that autumn has altered.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Yamazato no aware o souru yūgiri ni
tachiidemu sora mo naki kokochi shite

In this evening mist, which deepens the sadness of a mountain village, I find no sky at all to set out into.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Yamagatsu no magaki o komete tatsu kiri mo
kokoro sora naru hito wa todomezu

The mist that closes about the rough fence of a hill dweller will not hold back a man whose heart is already elsewhere.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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