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- Genji Monogatari
Nagamuran onaji kumoi o nagamuru wa
omoi mo onaji omoi naruramu
If she gazes at the same cloud-realm that you gaze at, then surely her feeling must be the same feeling as yours.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Ibuseku mo kokoro ni mono o nayamu kana
yayo ya ika ni to tou hito mo nami
My heart is closed and troubled with what it carries, and there is no one to say "well now, how are you?" and ask after me.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Omouran kokoro no hodo ya yayo ika ni
mada minu hito no kiki ka nayamamu
And how much is this feeling of yours—well now, how is it? Should one who has never seen you be troubled by hearsay alone?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Aki no yo no tsukige no koma yo waga kouru
kumoi o kakere toki no ma mo min
Moon-colored horse of this autumn night, run up to the cloud-realm I long for, that I may see her even for a moment.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Mutsugoto o katariawasemu hito mogana
ukiyo no yume mo nakaba samu ya to
If only there were someone to talk softly with, so that this dream of a wretched world might half wake from itself.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Akenu yo ni yagate madoeru kokoro ni wa
izure o yume to wakite kataramu
To a heart still lost in a night that never dawns, which of these is the dream and which is not, that I could tell them apart?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Shioshio to mazu zo nakaruru karisome no
mirume wa ama no susabi naredomo
Soaked with brine, I find myself weeping before anything else—though that seaweed glimpsed in passing was only a fisherman's idle amusement.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Uranaku mo omoikeru kana chigirishi o
matsu yori nami wa koeji mono zo to
How trustingly I believed our promise—that the waves would never cross over the pines.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kono tabi wa tachiwakaru tomo moshio yaku
keburi wa onaji kata ni nabikamu
Though this journey parts us, the smoke of the burning seaweed will drift the same way—and so will we.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kakitsumete ama no taku mo no omoi ni mo
ima wa kai naki urami dani seji
Though my thoughts burn like the seaweed the fisherfolk rake up and set alight, nothing can come of it now, and I will not even reproach you.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Naozari ni tanomeokumeru hitokoto o
tsukisenu ne ni ya kakete shinoban
That one word you seem to have left me to rely on, lightly though you meant it—shall I hang it on an endless sound and weep, remembering you?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Au made no katami ni chigiru naka no o no
shirabe wa koto ni kawarazaranamu
The middle string we pledge to each other as a keepsake until we meet again—may its tuning never change at all.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Uchisutete tatsu mo kanashiki uranami no
nagori ika ni to omoiyaru kana
It is sad enough to leave you and go; and how will it be afterward, in the wake the shore waves leave? So my thoughts run.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Toshi hetsuru tomaya mo arete uki nami no
kaeru kata ni ya mi o taguemashi
The rush-thatched hut where I have passed these years will fall to ruin; shall I let my body go with the sad waves, the way they turn back?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Yoru nami ni tachikasanetaru tabigoromo
shiodokeshi to ya hito no itowamu
This travelling robe I cut and layered as the waves came in—will you find it damp with brine and turn from it?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Katami ni zo kaubekarikeru au koto no
hikazu hedaten naka no koromo o
We ought to exchange them as keepsakes, each for the other—these robes worn between, which will stand between us for all the days until we meet.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu