classic waka stream

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  • Genji Monogatari

Ato taete kokoro sumu to wa nakeredomo
yo o Ujiyama ni yado o koso kare

No one comes to me now, though it is not that my heart has grown clear; finding the world bitter, I have borrowed lodging on Uji hill.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Yamaoroshi ni taenu ko no ha no tsuyu yori mo
ayanaku moroki waga namida kana

More easily than dew on leaves that cannot hold against the mountain wind, and for no reason I can name, my tears break and fall.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Asaborake ieji mo miezu tazune koshi
Maki no Oyama wa kiri kometekeri

At first light I cannot see the road home: Maki no O hill, which I came so far to seek, has filled with mist.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Kumo no iru mine no kakeji o akigiri no
itodo hedatsuru koro ni mo aru kana

Over the steep path by the clouded peak the autumn mist comes down all the more; such is the season we are in.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Hashihime no kokoro o kumite takase sasu
sao no shizuku ni sode zo nurenuru

Fathoming the heart of the lady of the bridge, I pole through the shallows, and the drops from the pole have soaked my sleeves.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Sashikaeru Uji no kawaosa asayū no
shizuku ya sode o kutashihatsuramu

The ferryman who poles back and forth across the Uji river must by now have let the drops of morning and evening rot his sleeves quite through.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Me no mae ni kono yo o somuku kimi yori mo
yoso ni wakaruru tama zo kanashiki

Sadder than you, who renounce the world before my eyes, is my own soul, which parts from you at a distance.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Inochi araba sore to mo mimashi hito shirenu
iwane ni tomeshi matsu no oisue

Had I life enough, I might have looked and known him: the pine left unremarked among the rocks, and how it grows on from here.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Yamakaze ni kasumi fukitoku koe wa aredo
hedatete miyuru ochikata no shiranami

A voice comes on the mountain wind that blows the haze apart, yet what I see, held off from me, are white waves in the distance.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Ochikata kochi no migiwa ni nami wa hedatsu tomo
nao fukikayoe Uji no kawakaze

Though waves lie between the near shore and the far, blow across and back again, O river wind of Uji.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Yamazakura niou atari ni tazune kite
onaji kazashi o oritekeru kana

I have come to where the mountain cherry glows, and have broken off a spray of the same blossom for us both to wear.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Kazashi oru hana no tayori ni yamagatsu no
kakine o suginu haru no tabibito

One who breaks a spray to wear and passes by a mountain rustic's hedge is only a traveller of spring.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Ware nakute kusa no io wa arenu tomo
kono hitokoto wa kareji to zo omou

Though this hut of grass fall to ruin when I am gone, this one word, I would believe, will neither wither nor be broken off.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Ika naramu yo ni ka karesemu nagaki yo no
chigiri musuberu kusa no io wa

In what age could I ever part from it—this hut of grass where we have bound a promise meant to last?

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Saoshika naku aki no yamazato ika naramu
kohagi ga tsuyu no kakaru yūgure

How must it be now, that mountain village in autumn where the stag calls, this evening when the dew lies heavy on the small hagi?

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Namida nomi kirifutagareru yamazato wa
magaki ni shika zo morogoe ni naku

In this mountain place, where nothing but tears closes in like mist, the deer at the hedge lift their voices with ours.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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