classic waka stream

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  • Izayoi Nikki

Morotomo ni mekari shioyaku ura naraba nakanaka sode ni nami wa kakeji o

If it were a bay where we cut the seaweed and burned the salt together, the waves would never break over our sleeves at all.

Izayoi Nikki

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Oboro naru tsuki wa miyako no sora nagara mada kikazarishi nami no yoruyoru

The moon is hazy in the same sky that hangs over the capital; but these nights of waves coming in are something I never heard before.

Izayoi Nikki - Abutsu-ni

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Nerareji na miyako no tsuki o mi ni soete narenu makura no nami no yoruyoru

You will not sleep, I think: the moon of the capital kept close beside you, and that pillow still strange to you, through these nights of waves coming in.

Izayoi Nikki

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Ikani shite shibashi miyako o wasuregai nami no hima naku ware zo kudakuru

However I try to forget the capital a while, gathering forgetting-shells, the waves come without pause, and I am broken as they are.

Izayoi Nikki - Abutsu-ni

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Shirazarishi urayamakaze mo umegaka wa miyako ni nitaru haru no akebono

This wind from the hills above the shore is new to me; but the scent of plum is like the capital's, here in the spring daybreak.

Izayoi Nikki - Abutsu-ni

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Hanagumori nagamete wataru urakaze ni kasumi tadayou haru no yo no tsuki

Blossom-clouded skies, and I gaze the days away; haze drifts on the wind off the bay, and behind it the moon of a spring night.

Izayoi Nikki - Abutsu-ni

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Azumaji no isoyamakaze no taema yori nami sae hana no omokage ni tatsu

On the eastern road, in a lull of the wind off the shore hills, even the waves rise up wearing the likeness of blossom.

Izayoi Nikki - Abutsu-ni

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Miyakobito omoi mo ideba Azumaji no hana ya ikani to otozurete mashi

If the people of the capital so much as remembered me, they would surely write to ask how the blossom is here on the eastern road.

Izayoi Nikki - Abutsu-ni

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Tanomu zo yo shiohi ni hirou utsusegai kai aru nami no tachikaeru yo o

I set my hopes on it: the day when the waves turn back and make even the empty shells of low tide worth the gathering.

Izayoi Nikki

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Kurabe miyo kasumi no uchi no haru no tsuki harenu kokoro wa onaji nagame o

Compare them: the spring moon within the haze is the one I see too, and a heart that will not clear looks out on the very same view.

Izayoi Nikki

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Shiranami no iro mo hitotsu ni chiru hana o omoiyaru sae omokage ni tatsu

The white of the waves and the white of the falling blossom are one; and merely thinking of it from here brings the whole sight before me.

Izayoi Nikki

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Azumaji no sakura o mite mo wasurezuba miyako no hana o hito ya towamashi

If you have not forgotten me, even with the cherry of the eastern road before you, might you not be the one to ask how the flowers are here at home?

Izayoi Nikki

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Itazura ni ama no shioyaku keburi to mo tare ka wa mimashi kaze ni kienaba

If the wind blew it away, who would so much as look and call it the salt-burners' smoke, gone up to no purpose?

Izayoi Nikki - Abutsu-ni

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Kie mo seji Waka no uraji ni toshi o hete hikari o souru ama no moshiobi

It will not go out: the seaweed fire of the shore, that has added its light along the road of the Bay of Poetry all these years.

Izayoi Nikki

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Tanomoshi na mi ni sou tomo to narinikeri taenaru nori no hana no chigiri wa

What a support it is: it has become a friend that goes beside me, this bond with the flower of the wonderful Law.

Izayoi Nikki - Abutsu-ni

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Mishi yo koso kawarazaru rame kurehatete haru yori natsu ni utsuru kozue mo

Surely the world I knew is unchanged: there too the spring is wholly over, and the branch-tips are turning from spring into summer.

Izayoi Nikki - Abutsu-ni

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