On Deja Vu - Tsurezure Gusa

"名を聞くより、やがて、面影は推し測らるる心地するを、見る時は、また了（かね）て思ひつるままの顔したる人こそ無けれ。昔物語を聞きても、この頃の人の家の、そこ程にてぞ有りけんと覚え、人も、今見る人の中（うち）に思ひ比(よそ)へらるるは、誰（たれ）も、かく覚ゆるにや。
また、いかなる折ぞ、ただ今、人の言ふ事も、目に見ゆる物も、我が心の中も、かかる事の何時ぞや有りしかと覚えて、何時とは思ひ出でねども、正（まさ）しく有りし心地のするは、我ばかり、かく思ふにや。"

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   "On hearing a man's name I at once fancy in imagination what he may be like; but when I see him, his face is never what I had expected it to be. On hearing a story of the days of old my thoughts turn from that period to the houses of people of the present day, and from the men whom I see around me I picture what the people then must have been like. Do others also have fancies such as these?

   Again, at the moment when something is said or at some sight I see, or some sensation I have, I feel that I have experienced it once long ago; though when it was I cannot tell. I wonder if it is really only I who have such feelings?"

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(Japanese sourced from Japanese Classical Literature at Bedtime. )