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- Genji Monogatari
Kōritoji iwama no mizu wa yukinayami
sora sumu tsuki no kage zo nagaruru
Locked fast under ice, the water among the stones can hardly move, while the clear moon in the sky sheds its light and flows on away.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kakitsumete mukashi koishiki yukimoyo ni
aware o souru oshi no ukine ka
Gathering it all together, on this snow-threatening night when the past is dear, the mandarin duck at its floating sleep adds its own note of sorrow.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Tokete nenu nezame sabishiki fuyu no yo ni
musubōretsuru yume no mijikasa
On a winter night of no easy sleep and lonely waking, how short it was—that dream, all tangled and choked, that came and went so soon.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Naki hito o shitau kokoro ni makasete mo
kage minu mitsu no se ni ya madowamu
Though I follow the heart that longs for the dead, will I only lose my way—not seeing her—at the three fords of that river?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kakeki ya wa kawase no nami mo tachikaeri
kimi ga misogi no fuji no yatsure o
Could I ever have foreseen that, as the waves of the river turn and come again, this day of purification would find you worn thin in the wisteria drab of mourning?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Fujigoromo kishi wa kinō to omou ma ni
kyō wa misogi no se ni kawaru yo o
It seems only yesterday that I put on these mourning robes, and today the season of the cleansing rite has come—yesterday's deep pool is today's shallows, in a world that shifts so fast.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Sayonaka ni tomo yobiwataru kari ga ne ni
utate fukisou ogi no uwakaze
Deep in the night the wild geese cross the sky calling for their companions, and to that cry the wind along the tops of the reeds adds a sighing more bitter still.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kurenai no namida ni fukaki sode no iro o
asamidori ni ya ii shiorubeki
Are they to look at this sleeve of mine, dyed deep in tears of blood, and dismiss it as nothing more than the pale green of the sixth rank?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Iroiro ni mi no uki hodo no shiraruru wa
ika ni somekeru naka no koromo zo
In one thing after another I am made to feel how hard my lot is—in what dye, I wonder, was this bond of ours ever steeped?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Shimogōri utate musuberu akegure no
sora kakikurashi furu namida kana
Frost and ice have closed in so bitterly, and the dim sky before dawn I darken further still with these tears of mine, falling.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Ame ni masu Toyookahime no miyabito mo
waga kokorozasu shime o wasuru na
You who serve at the shrine of Toyooka-hime, enthroned in heaven, do not forget the sacred rope my heart has drawn about you—do not forget that I have claimed you.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Otomego mo kamusabinurashi amatsusode
furuki yo no tomo yowai henureba
You who were the maiden then must have taken on years by now, since the days of those heavenly sleeves—for the friend you knew in that old world has grown old himself.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kakete ieba kyō no koto to zo omooyuru
hikage no shimo no sode ni tokeshi mo
Put it that way and it seems a thing of today—how, like frost melting in the sun, I once softened against your sleeve, wearing the maiden's sunlight garland.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Hikage ni mo shirukarikeme ya otomego ga
ama no hasode ni kakeshi kokoro wa
Even in the light of day, was it clear to you at all—this heart of mine that hung upon the maiden's heavenly feathered sleeves?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Uguisu no saezuru koe wa mukashi nite
mutsureshi hana no kage zo kawareru
The warbler's song is what it always was, but the shade of the blossoms where we once made merry together has changed past knowing.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kokonoe o kasumi hedatsuru sumika ni mo
haru to tsugekuru uguisu no koe
Even to this dwelling, cut off from the ninefold court by a veil of haze, the warblers have come to tell me that spring is here.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu