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- Genji Monogatari
Ausaka no seki ya ikanaru seki nareba
shigeki nageki no naka o wakuran
The barrier at Ausaka—what manner of barrier is it, that one must push through so thick a stand of grief?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Wakareji ni soeshi ogushi o kagoto nite
harukeki naka to kami ya isameshi
Was it the small comb I added on your parting road that the god took as pretext, warning us into a bond as far apart as this?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Wakaru tote haruka ni iishi hitokoto mo
kaerite mono wa ima zo kanashiki
Even that single word you spoke from far off at our parting turns back on itself now, and the thing is sorrowful indeed.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Ise no umi no fukaki kokoro o tadorazute
furinishi ato to nami ya ketsubeki
Without following the deep heart of the sea of Ise, shall the waves wipe it away as an old, outworn trace?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kumo no ue ni omoinoboreru kokoro ni wa
chihiro no soko mo haruka ni zo miru
To a heart that would rise into the realm above the clouds, even the thousand-fathom deep is seen far below.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Mirume koso urafurinurame toshi henishi
Ise o no ama no na o ya shizumemu
To the eye it may have grown worn and old with years; but shall we sink the name of the fisher of Ise?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Hitori ite nagekishi yori wa ama no sumu
kata o kakute zo mirubekarikeru
Rather than sitting alone and grieving, I should have looked on it like this—the shore where the fisherfolk live, laid out before me.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Ukime mishi sono ori yori mo kyō wa mata
suginishi kata ni kaeru namida ka
More than at the time I knew that wretched grief, today the tears turn back again toward the days now gone.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Mi koso kaku shime no hoka nare sonokami no
kokoro no uchi o wasure shi mo sezu
My body is now outside the sacred rope, yet the heart I held within me in those old days I have never once forgotten.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Shime no uchi wa mukashi ni aranu kokochi shite
kamiyo no koto mo ima zo koishiki
Within the sacred rope it feels no longer as it once was, and those days of the age of gods I long for now, even now.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Mi o kaete hitori kaereru yamazato ni
kikishi ni nitaru matsukaze zo fuku
Now a nun and changed, I have come back alone to this mountain home, where the wind in the pines blows with a sound like the one I knew long ago.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Furusato ni mishi yo no tomo o koiwabite
saezuru koto o tare ka wakuramu
Aching for the friends of the world I knew in my old home, I chatter on like a bird—but who is there to make out what I mean?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Chigirishi ni kawaranu koto no shirabe nite
taenu kokoro no hodo wa shiriki ya
By the koto's music, unchanged since the day we made our vow, did you come to see how my heart runs on and never ends?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kawaraji to chigirishi koto o tanomi nite
matsu no hibiki ni ne o soeshi kana
Trusting the vow you made never to change, I have gone on adding the sound of my weeping to the voice of the wind in the pines.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Yuki fukami miyama no michi wa harezu tomo
nao fumikayoe ato taezu shite
Though the deep snow leaves the mountain road unclear, still tread through and keep sending word, letting the footprints never break off.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Yukima naki Yoshino no yama o tazunete mo
kokoro no kayou ato taeme ya wa
Though one should visit the hills of Yoshino where the snow never lifts, could the footprints by which our hearts pass ever break off?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu