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- Genji Monogatari
Namidagawa ukabu minawa mo kienubeshi
nagarete nochi no se o mo matazute
The bubble on this river of tears will surely vanish, without waiting for the shallows that lie downstream.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Mishi wa naku aru wa kanashiki yo no hate o
somukishi kai mo naku naku zo furu
Those I knew are gone, those who remain only grieve; and at this end of the world I pass my days in tears, having gained nothing by renouncing it.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Wakareshi ni kanashiki koto wa tsukinishi o
mata zo kono yo no usa wa masareru
At that parting I thought grief had been exhausted, and now again the wretchedness of this world has only grown.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Hikitsurete aoi kazashishi sonokami o
omoeba tsurashi Kamo no mizugaki
Remembering the time we rode here in procession with hollyhock in our caps, I find this sacred fence at Kamo hard to look on.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Ukiyo o ba ima zo wakaruru todomaramu
na o ba Tadasu no kami ni makasete
From this wretched world I take my leave now, and I leave whatever name remains behind me to the god of Tadasu.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Naki kage ya ikaga miruramu yosoetsutsu
nagamuru tsuki mo kumogakurenuru
How does my father's spirit look on me now? Even the moon I gazed at, taking it for him, has gone behind the clouds.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Itsu ka mata haru no miyako no hana o mimu
toki ushinaeru yamagatsu ni shite
When shall I see the flowers of the spring capital again, now that I am a mountain rustic whose season has passed?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Sakite toku chiru wa ukeredo yuku haru wa
hana no miyako o tachikaeri mi yo
It is hard that they bloom and fall so soon; but as the spring goes by, come back and look on this city of flowers again.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Ikeru yo no wakare o shirade chigiritsutsu
inochi o hito ni kagirikeru kana
Not knowing that there are partings even among the living, we made our vows, and I measured the term of my life by yours.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Oshikaranu inochi ni kaete me no mae no
wakare o shibashi todometeshigana
With this life of mine, which I would not grudge, I would buy a little delay for the parting that is here before me.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Karakuni ni na o nokoshikeru hito yori mo
yukue shirarenu iei o ya semu
Even more than that man who left his name in the land of Cathay, shall I keep house where no one knows where I have gone?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Furusato o mine no kasumi wa hedatsuredo
nagamuru sora wa onaji kumoi ka
Though the mist on the ridge shuts off the home I have left, is this sky I look at the same one even so?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Matsushima no ama no tomaya mo ika naramu
Suma no urabito shiotaruru koro
How do things stand at the fisherwoman's rush-thatched hut at Matsushima, in a season when the man of Suma's shore is wet with tears?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Korizuma no ura no mirume no yukashiki o
shio yaku ama ya ikaga omowamu
That I still long, unchastened, for a sight of the seaweed of that bay—what will the salt-burning fisherfolk make of it?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Shiotaruru koto o yaku nite Matsushima ni
toshi furu ama mo nageki o zo tsumu
Making a trade of weeping, the fisherwoman growing old at Matsushima heaps up her griefs as well.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Ura ni taku ama dani tsutsumu koi nareba
kuyuru keburi yo yukukata zo naki
Since even the fisherfolk who burn their fires on the shore keep this love hidden, its smoke smolders with nowhere to go.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu