classic waka stream

君まさで煙絶えにし塩竈の
うらさびしくも見え渡るかな
Roma-ji

Kimi masade kemuri taenishi Shiogama no ura sabishiku mo mie wataru kana

English Translation
Since you are no more,
the smoke has ceased to rise
from Shiogama,
and all across the bay
it looks lonely to my heart.
Meaning
Now that you are gone, the salt-fire smoke of Shiogama has died away, and the whole bay looks desolate to my heart.
Commentary
Book Sixteen Poems of Lament 852

Headnote: "After the Kawara Minister of the Left passed away, visiting his house and seeing the place made to resemble Shiogama, composed this"
After the Kawara Minister of the Left died, the poet visited his mansion and saw the part of the garden made to imitate the Bay of Shiogama in Michinoku. While its master lived, smoke rose from the salt fires, but now it has ceased, and the bay looks desolate. The change in this house of refined taste is overlaid with grief for the lost master.
The Kawara Minister of the Left is Minamoto no Tōru. He is said to have modeled the garden of Kawara-no-in on the Bay of Shiogama and had seawater carried from Naniwa to burn salt there. 848 of this book also mourns Tōru, so poems on the death of the same man stand together.
The author, Ki no Tsurayuki, was the leading compiler of the Kokinshū and wrote its Japanese preface. He is one of the Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry.

The first line, "you no longer here," uses masu, the honorific of "to be," with the negative de: "since you are no longer present."
The second line, "the smoke has ceased," refers to the smoke of burning salt.
The third line, "of Shiogama," names a famous place in Michinoku, here the imitation of it in the garden of Kawara-no-in.
The fourth line, "lonely," uses ura as a pivot word meaning both the "bay" of Shiogama and the "heart."
The last line, "it appears all across," closes with an exclamation over the scene seen as far as the eye can reach.
Author
Ki no Tsurayuki
Source
Kokin Wakashu
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