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- Genji Monogatari
Inishie o fukitsutaetaru fuetake ni
saezuru tori no ne sae kawaranu
The flute breathes on the music of the old days, and even the song of the birds is what it always was—nothing here has changed at all.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Uguisu no mukashi o koite saezuru wa
kozutau hana no iro ya asetaru
If the warbler sings out of longing for the past, can it be that the blossoms it moves among from branch to branch have faded from what they were?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kokoro kara haru matsu sono wa waga yado no
momiji o kaze no tsute ni dani mi yo
Since it is by your own choosing that you wait for spring, look at least on the autumn leaves of my garden, sent to you by way of the wind.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kaze ni chiru momiji wa karoshi haru no iro o
iwane no matsu ni kakete koso mime
Leaves that scatter on the wind are light things indeed; it is the color of spring you should look upon, hung on the pine that roots among the rocks.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Funabito mo tare o kou to ka Ōshima no
urakanashige ni koe no kikoyuru
Whom can the boatmen be longing for, that from the bay of Oshima their voices should reach us sounding so of sorrow?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Koshikata mo yukukata mo shiranu oki ni idete
aware izuku ni kimi o kouran
We have rowed out onto open water, knowing neither where we came from nor where we are bound—ah, toward what quarter are we to turn and long for you?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kimi ni moshi kokoro tagawaba Matsura naru
Kagami no kami o kakete chikawamu
Should my heart ever turn away from you, then let me swear it by the god of the mirror shrine at Matsura.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Toshi o hete inoru kokoro no tagainaba
Kagami no kami o tsurashi to ya mimu
If the prayer I have offered up year after year should come to nothing, must I then count the god of the mirror shrine unkind?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Ukishima o kogihanarete mo yukukata ya
izuku tomari to shirazu mo aru kana
We have rowed clear of the island of Floating, and still I cannot tell where we are bound, nor what harbor may be waiting.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Yukusaki mo mienu namiji ni funade shite
kaze ni makasuru mi koso ukitare
We have put out on a sea road whose end cannot be seen, and this body of mine drifts wretchedly wherever the wind may take it.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Uki koto ni mune nomi sawagu hibiki ni wa
Hibiki no nada mo sawarazarikeri
Against the pounding of a heart so full of trouble, even the famous Sea of Thunder proved no hindrance at all.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Futamoto no sugi no tachido o tazunezu wa
Furukawa nobe ni kimi o mimashi ya
Had I not come to seek out the place where the two cedars stand, could I ever have found you here beside the old river?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Hatsusegawa hayaku no koto wa shiranedomo
kyō no ause ni mi sae nagarenu
Of the swift past of the Hatsuse I know nothing—yet at this glad meeting today, my tears run, and my very body seems to flow away with them.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Shirazu tomo tazunete shiramu Mishimae ni
ouru mikuri no suji wa taeji o
Though you do not know it, ask and you will learn: like the sedge that grows in the inlet of Mishima, the thread that runs between us will not break.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kazu naranu mikuri ya nani no suji nareba
uki ni shi mo kaku ne o todomekemu
I who count for nothing—by what thread was I ever fated to put down roots and stay, like sedge in the mire, in a world so full of grief?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Koiwataru mi wa sore naredo tamakazura
ikanaru suji o tazune kitsuramu
I who have gone on loving her are the same man I was; but by what strand of the jeweled vine did this girl trace her way to me?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu