classic waka stream

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  • Kagero Nikki

Yamagatsu no ato machiidete kurabureba koi masarikeru kata mo arikeri

Waiting to see what the woodsman became, and comparing the two, I find one side has the fuller calf — and the fuller love as well.

Kagero Nikki

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Matsuyama no sashikoete shimo araji yo o ware ni yosoete sawagu nami kana

No wave will ever cross the pine-clad hill; and yet here is a wave that makes a commotion, and likens it all to me.

Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

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Matsushima no kaze ni shitagau nami nare ya yosuru kata koso tachimasarikere

Being a wave of Matsushima that goes wherever the wind blows, it rises highest on the very side toward which it leans.

Kagero Nikki

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Mishi yume o chigae wabinuru aki no yo ni negataki mono to omoi shirinuru

On an autumn night when I cannot turn aside the dream I dreamed, I have learned at last how hard a thing it is to fall asleep.

Kagero Nikki

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Samo koso wa chigauru yume wa katakarame awade hodo furu mi sae uki kana

No doubt it is so: a dream is a hard thing to turn aside. And harder still is this body of mine, passing the days without a meeting.

Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

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Au to mishi yume ni nakanaka kurasarete nagori koishiku samenu narikeri

The dream in which I saw us meet has only darkened me the more; and longing for what it left behind, I find I do not wake from it.

Kagero Nikki

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Koto tayuru utsutsu ya nani zo nakanaka ni yume wa kayoiji ari to iu mono o

And what, then, is this waking world, where even words run out between us? They say that dreams, at least, have a road along which one may pass.

Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

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Kawa to mite yukanu kokoro o nagamureba itodo yuyushiku ii ya hatsu beki

Taking what lies between us for a river, and gazing at a heart that will not flow across it — must you speak the thing out to its end, and so ill-omenedly?

Kagero Nikki

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Wataraneba ochikatabito ni nareru mi o kokoro bakari wa fuchise ya wa waku

Since I do not cross, I have become one who stands on the farther shore; but does my heart divide the deep water from the shallow? It does not.

Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

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Hitogokoro uji no ajiro ni tamasaka ni yoru hiru dani mo tazunekeru kana

The human heart is a bitter thing; and yet here at the fish-weir of Uji, rarely as such things happen, you have come seeking me, by night and by day alike.

Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

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Kaeru hi o kokoro no uchi ni kazoetsutsu tare ni yorite ka ajiro o mo tou

I waited, counting over in my heart the days until your return. For whose sake, if not yours, would I come to look at a fish-weir?

Kagero Nikki - Fujiwara no Kaneie

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Toshi goto ni amareru kimi ga tame urūzuki o ba oku ni ya aruramu

Is it for you, who run to a surplus every year, that an extra month is set into the calendar?

Kagero Nikki - Fujiwara no Kaneie

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Momo no hana sukimono domo o saiō ga sono watari made tazune ni zo yaru

O peach blossom: we are sending out to seek those connoisseurs of ours as far as the country of the Queen Mother of the West.

Kagero Nikki

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Yamakaze no mae yori fukeba tako no haru no yanagi no ito wa shirie ni zo yoru

Since the mountain wind blows from the front, the willow threads of that spring lean back — toward the rear.

Kagero Nikki

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Kazukazu ni kimi katayorite hiku nareba yanagi no mayu mo ima zo hirakuru

Time after time you lean our way and draw with us, and so the willow's brows unknit themselves at last, this very moment.

Kagero Nikki

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Toki shimo are kaku samidare no tamasaka ni ochikatabito no hito mo koso fure

Of all times, now, with the fifth-month rains coming down like this: the far-off person, rare enough before, lets the days fall past as the rain falls.

Kagero Nikki - The Mother of Fujiwara no Michitsuna

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