classic waka stream

たつた川岩根をさしてゆく水の
ゆくへも知らぬわがごとや泣く
Roma-ji

Tatsutagawa iwane o sashite yuku mizu no yukue mo shiranu waga goto ya naku

English Translation
Like the water of
the Tatsuta, running down
to find the rock's root —
not knowing where it goes: is
it crying, then, as I do
Meaning
Like the water of the Tatsuta running down to the rock's root, not knowing where it goes — is it crying, then, as I do?
Commentary
154 The Cock with Streamers

A man from the capital caught sight of a very beautiful girl living in Yamato, and, struck by her beauty, carried her off, took her up on his horse and fled. She was terrified. At nightfall they took shelter near Tatsuta mountain, and he spread a mudguard for bedding and forced himself on her, and she was overcome with fear. Emptied of everything, she would not answer whatever he said, but wept; and when he said "Ta ga misogi yūtsuke tori ka karakoromo Tatsuta no yama ni orihaete naku", she composed "Tatsutagawa iwane o sashite yuku mizu no yukue mo shiranu waga goto ya naku" and killed herself. In his desolation he held her and wept. That is the whole of the section.
Yamato is the modern Nara prefecture. Tatsuta mountain lies on the road from Yamato into Kawachi and appears in the hundred and forty-ninth section; the Tatsuta river runs nearby and is the subject of the hundred and fifty-first. Neither the man nor the girl is named.
The setting is the same shelter, after she had heard his poem.
What prompted it is his, "Ta ga misogi yūtsuke tori ka karakoromo Tatsuta no yama ni orihaete naku".
Having composed it she killed herself. In his desolation he held her and wept, and the section closes on that sentence.

She opens from his Tatsuta and shifts it to the river — the same place name, a new starting point.
The water running down to the rock's root works as a preface to what follows: the verb for its going carries over into the word for a destination.
Not knowing where she goes is her own case, carried off to she knows not where.
The closing asks whether the bird cries as she does. He asked about the bird; she answers by asking whether the bird is like herself. The poem answers his question and states her own condition — and with it she died.
Source
Yamato Monogatari
Other