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- Genji Monogatari
Izukata no kumoji ni ware mo mayoinamu
tsuki no miruramu koto mo hazukashi
On which road through the clouds shall I lose my own way? And it shames me that the moon may be watching.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Tomochidori morogoe ni naku akatsuki wa
hitori nezame no toko mo tanomoshi
At a dawn when the plovers cry together with their fellows, even this bed where I wake alone feels like something to lean on.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Itsu to naku ōmiyabito no koishiki ni
sakura kazashishi kyō mo kinikeri
I long for the people of the palace at every season, and now the day has come round again when we wore cherry in our caps.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Furusato o izure no haru ka yukite mimu
urayamashiki wa kaeru kari ga ne
In what spring shall I go and see my home again? What I envy are these geese, going back.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Akanaku ni kari no tokoyo o tachiwakare
hana no miyako ni michi ya madowamu
Having had nothing like my fill, I leave this land of the geese—shall I lose my way on the road to the city of flowers?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kumo chikaku tobikau tazu mo sora ni mi yo
ware wa haruhi no kumori naki mi zo
You cranes crossing up there near the clouds, look down from the sky: I am as free of cloud as a spring day.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Tazuka naki kumoi ni hitori ne o zo naku
tsubasa narabeshi tomo o koitsutsu
In a cloud-realm with nothing to hold to, I cry out alone, longing for the friend whose wing once lay beside my own.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Shirazarishi ōumi no hara ni nagarekite
hitokata ni ya wa mono wa kanashiki
Having drifted out to a plain of open sea I never knew, is my sorrow of one kind only?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Yaoyorozu kami mo aware to omouramu
okaseru tsumi no sore to nakereba
The countless gods must surely feel for me, since there is no crime of mine that anyone can name.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Urakaze ya ika ni fukuramu omoiyaru
sode uchinurashi namima naki koro
How is the shore wind blowing there? The sleeves of one who thinks of you are soaked through, in a season when the waves leave no gap at all.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Umi ni masu kami no tasuke ni kakarazu wa
shio no yaoai ni sasuraenamashi
Had I not had the help of the god who dwells in the sea, I would be drifting where the eight hundred tides run together.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Haruka ni mo omoiyaru kana shirazarishi
ura yori ochi ni urazutai shite
From far off my thoughts go out to you—having moved on from a shore I never knew to one beyond it, following the coast.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Awa to miru Awaji no shima no aware sae
nokoru kuma naku sumeru yo no tsuki
This clear night moon leaves no corner dark—even the old feeling of Awaji, the island once glimpsed and named with an "ah."
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Hitorine wa kimi mo shirinu ya tsurezure to
omoi Akashi no urasabishisa o
Have you too learned what it is to sleep alone—how, with nothing to do, she passes the nights in the loneliness of Akashi bay?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Tabigoromo uraganashisa ni akashikane
kusa no makura wa yume mo musubazu
In this traveller's robe, for the sadness of its lining, I cannot hold out till dawn, and on a pillow of grass no dream will form.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Ochikochi mo shiranu kumoi ni nagamewabi
kasumeshi yado no kozue o zo tou
Weary of gazing into a cloud-realm where I can tell neither far from near, I come asking after the treetops of the house you hinted at.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu