This is a passage that we have used as an example in this course. Here we give the original text and some explanation about it. It is the first paragraph of the Hoozyooki "An account of my hut", a mediation on Buddhist themes written in the second year of the Kenryaku era (1212 C.E.) by Kamo no Tyoomei (1153-1216). The standard edition is the Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei edition edited by Nishio Minoru and published by Iwanami Shoten in a volume also containing the Tsurezuregusa.
Original Text in Transliteration
Yuku kawa no nagare wa, taezu site, sikamo moto no mizu ni arazu. Yodomi ni ukabu utakata wa, katu kie katu musubite, hisasiku todomaritaru tamesi nasi. Yo no naka ni, hito to sumika to, mata kaku no gotosi.
Notes on pronounciation:
/s/ is [sh] before /i/, /t/ is [ts] before /u/, and at the time of writing, /h/ was a voiceless bilabial fricative.
Free translation:
Ceaselessly the river flows, yet the water is never the same, while in the still pools the billowing foam gathers and is gone, never staying for a moment. In this world, even so is man and his habitation.
More literal translation:
The flow of the moving river is ceaseless, yet it is never the original water. The foam floating in a still pool, sometimes dispersing, sometimes gathering, never remains for long. In this world, even so is man and his habitation.
Here is a photograph of the first page of the manuscript:
