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- Genji Monogatari
Sue tōki futaba no matsu ni hikiwakare
itsu ka kodakaki kage o mirubeki
Parted from the two-leafed pine whose years stretch far ahead, when shall I ever see the tall-grown form it will become?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Oisomeshi ne mo fukakereba Takekuma no
matsu ni komatsu no chiyo o narabemu
The root it sprang from runs deep, so like the twin pines of Takekuma I shall set the mother-pine and the small pine side by side for a thousand years.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Fune tomuru ochikatabito no naku wa koso
asu kaeri komu se to machimime
Were there no distant other to hold your boat fast, then I might wait for you as the husband who comes home tomorrow.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Yukite mite asu mo sane komu nakanaka ni
ochikatabito wa kokoro oku tomo
I will go and see her, and tomorrow indeed come home—even if the distant other, rather, takes it amiss.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Irihi sasu mine ni tanabiku usugumo wa
mono omou sode ni iro ya magaeru
The thin cloud trailing over the peak where the sun sinks—has it matched its color to the mourning sleeve of one sunk deep in sorrow?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Isari seshi kage wasurarenu kagaribi wa
mi no ukifune ya shitaikiniken
The unforgettable fishing-fire of that shore—has this wretched drifting boat of mine come following after it?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Asakaranu shita no omoi o shiraneba ya
nao kagaribi no kage wa sawageru
Is it that you do not know my deep thought burning under the water, that still the fishing-fire's light keeps trembling on the surface—and you go on grieving alone?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Hito shirezu kami no yurushi o machishi ma ni
kokora tsurenaki yo o sugusu kana
While in secret I waited for the god to release you, how many heartless years I have let slip past, in a world that never softened toward me.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Nabete yo no aware bakari o tou kara ni
chikaishi koto to kami ya isamemu
Even to offer no more than the world's ordinary sympathy—since I once made the vow, would not the god rebuke me for it?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Mishi ori no tsuyu wasurarenu asagao no
hana no sakari wa sugi ya shinuramu
The morning-glory whose first sight I have never once forgotten—has its flower now passed the height of its bloom, and so, I wonder, have you?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Aki hatete kiri no magaki ni musubōre
aru ka naki ka ni utsuru asagao
Autumn over, I hang tangled on the mist-hung hedge, and barely there at all I fade—this morning-glory, which is myself.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Itsu no ma ni yomogi ga moto to musubōre
yuki furu sato to areshi kakine zo
When did it happen—that this hedge I knew so well grew tangled at the mugwort's root, a village of falling snow gone all to ruin?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Toshi furedo kono chigiri koso wasurarene
oya no oya to ka iishi hitokoto
Though the years pass, this bond I cannot forget—that one word of yours, when you called me the parent of a parent.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Mi o kaete nochi mo machimi yo kono yo nite
oya o wasururu tameshi ari ya to
Wait and watch even in the life after I am born again—for was there ever, in this world, a case of a child forgetting its parent?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Tsurenasa o mukashi ni korinu kokoro koso
hito no tsuraki ni soete tsurakere
This heart of mine, which never learned from your coldness long ago, joined now to your cruelty, weighs on me all the harder.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Aratamete nani ka wa miemu hito no ue ni
kakari to kikishi kokorogawari o
Why now, all over again, should I let you see me? A change of heart, they say, is a thing that befalls others' lives—but not mine.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu