classic waka stream

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  • Genji Monogatari

Ware kakute ukiyo no naka ni meguru tomo
tare ka wa shiramu tsuki no miyako ni

Though I go on circling through this bitter world, who in the city of the moon will ever know that I am alive?

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Adashino no kaze ni nabiku na ominaeshi
ware shime yuwamu michi tōku tomo

Do not bend to the wind of that field of the dead, maiden flower; I will rope you round as mine, however far the road.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Utsushi uete omoi midarenu ominaeshi
ukiyo o somuku kusa no io ni

Moved and planted here, the maiden flower is troubled by nothing, in this hut of grass where the bitter world has been turned away from.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Matsumushi no koe o tazunete kitsuredomo
mata hagihara no tsuyu ni madoinu

I came seeking the voice of the pine cricket, and once again I have lost my way in the dew of the bush-clover fields.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Aki no no no tsuyu wake kitaru karigoromo
mugura shigereru yado ni kakotsu na

Do not blame this creeper-grown house for a hunting robe that has come parting the dew of the autumn fields.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Fukaki yo no tsuki o aware to minu hito ya
yama no ha chikaki yado ni tomaranu

Are you not one to look with feeling at the late-night moon, that you will not stay in a house so near the mountain ridge?

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Yama no ha ni iru made tsuki o nagame mimu
neya no itama mo shirushi ari ya to

I will watch the moon until it sinks behind the ridge, to see whether any sign of it shows through the boards of the sleeping room.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Wasurarenu mukashi no koto mo fuetake no
tsuraki fushi ni mo ne zo nakarekeru

Over things long ago that will not be forgotten, and at the hard joints of the flute-bamboo as well, I have wept aloud.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Fue no ne ni mukashi no koto mo shinobarete
kaerishi hodo mo sode zo nurenishi

At the flute's voice things long ago came back to me, and at the hour of your going home my sleeves too were wet.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Hakanakute yo ni Furukawa no uki se ni wa
tazune mo yukaji futamoto no sugi

Having passed my life so frailly, I will not go seeking out those bitter shallows again, nor the two cedars by the old stream.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Furukawa no sugi no motodachi shiranedomo
suginishi hito ni yosoete zo miru

I do not know how the cedars by the old stream grew to what they are, and yet I look on you as the likeness of one now gone.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Kokoro ni wa aki no yūbe o wakanedomo
nagamuru sode ni tsuyu zo midaruru

It is not that I single out the autumn dusk for sorrow, and yet as I gaze the dew falls astray upon my sleeves.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Yamazato no aki no yo fukaki aware o mo
mono omou hito wa omoi koso shire

The deep hour of an autumn night in these hills is understood only by one who broods over things.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Uki mono to omoi mo shirade sugusu mi o
mono omou hito to hito wa shirikeri

I pass my days without even knowing them to be bitter, and yet others, it seems, took me for one who broods.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Naki mono ni mi o mo hito o mo omoitsutsu
suteteshi yo o zo sara ni sutetsuru

Holding myself and everyone else to be no more, I have cast away a second time the world I had cast away once.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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Kagiri zo to omoinarinishi yo no naka o
kaesugaesu mo somukinuru kana

From the world I had settled with myself was over and done with, I have turned away, and turned away again.

Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu

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