classic waka stream

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  • Heike Monogatari

Yukikurete ko no shitakage o yado to seba
hana ya koyoi no aruji naramashi

If the dark comes on before I reach a lodging, and I take the shade beneath a tree instead, then the blossoms are my host tonight.

Heike Monogatari - Go-Toba In

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Waga koi wa hosotanigawa no maroki hashi
fumikaesarete nururu sode kana

My love is a single log laid across a narrow stream for a bridge: it turns underfoot and sends me down, and my sleeves come up soaked.

Heike Monogatari - Fujiwara no Tsunemitsu

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Tada tanome hosotanigawa no maroki hashi
fumikaeshite wa ochizarame ya wa

Only trust in it: that single log across the stream—tread on it again and again, and will it not come down after all?

Heike Monogatari - Fujiwara no Kintsune

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Izuku to mo shiranu ause no moshiogusa
kakioku ato o katami to mo mi yo

I do not know where we shall meet again; but look on these traces I write and leave behind as a keepsake.

Heike Monogatari - Fujiwara no Saneuji

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Namidagawa uki na o nagasu mi nari tomo
ima hitotabi no ause tomogana

Though I am one whose ill name goes streaming down the river of tears, I would ask for one more meeting, only one.

Heike Monogatari - Fujiwara no Ietaka

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Kimi yue ni ware mo uki na o nagasu tomo
soko no mikuzu to tomo ni narinan

Even if for your sake my own name streams away in disgrace, let me become the refuse at the bottom, and be there with you.

Heike Monogatari - Shosho no Naishi

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Au koto mo tsuyu no inochi mo morotomo ni
koyoi bakari ya kagiri naruran

Our meeting, and this life of mine as light as dew—is it that tonight both come to their end at once?

Heike Monogatari - Fujiwara no Ietaka

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Kagiri tote tachiwakarureba tsuyu no mi no
kimi yori saki ni kienubeki kana

You call it the last time, and we part; and this dew-light self of mine will surely vanish before yours does.

Heike Monogatari - Shosho no Naishi

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Tabi no sora hanyū no koya no ibusesa ni
furusato ika ni koishikaruran

Under a strange sky, in the closeness of this poor earthen hut, how you must be longing for the home you have left.

Heike Monogatari - Go-Saga In

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Furusato mo koishiku mo nashi tabi no sora
miyako mo tsui no sumika naraneba

No, I do not long for home. Neither this strange sky nor the capital is a place where a man may stay for good.

Heike Monogatari - Fujiwara no Ietaka

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Ika ni sen miyako no haru mo oshikeredo
nareshi Azuma no hana ya chiruran

What am I to do? The spring of the capital is dear to me, and yet in the east, the country I know, the blossoms may already be falling.

Heike Monogatari - Go-Saga In

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Oshikaranu inochi naredomo kyō made ni
tsurenaki Kai no Shirane o mo mitsu

This life of mine is nothing I would grieve to lose; and yet it has lasted long enough to let me see the white peaks of Kai, indifferent as they are.

Heike Monogatari - Fujiwara no Ietaka

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Soru made wa uramishikadomo azusayumi
makoto no michi ni iru zo ureshiki

Until you shaved your head I bore a grudge; but now that you have entered the true way, I find I am glad.

Heike Monogatari - Dainagon no Naishi

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Soru totemo nani ka uramin azusayumi
hikitodomubeki kokoro naraneba

What is there to hold against you for shaving your head? Neither heart is one that could be drawn back now.

Heike Monogatari - Ben no Naishi

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Kimi sumeba koko mo kumoi no tsuki naredo
nao koishiki wa miyako narikeri

Since my lord dwells here, this too is a moon above a palace—and still what I long for is the capital after all.

Heike Monogatari - Chunagon no Naishi

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Nagamureba nururu tamoto ni yadorikeri
tsuki yo kumoi no monogatari seyo

As I gazed, the moon came down and lodged in my sleeve, wet through with tears. Moon, tell me the old tales of the palace.

Heike Monogatari - Sanjo Kinchika

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