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- Genji Monogatari
Kite mireba uramirarekeri karagoromo
kaeshiyariten sode o nurashite
Putting it on, I found only bitterness in it—this Chinese robe I would turn inside out and send back to you, with my sleeves wet through.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kaesamu to iu ni tsukete mo katashiki no
yoru no koromo o omoi koso yare
Even as you speak of sending the robe back, my thoughts go out to you, and to those nights spent with one sleeve spread beneath you alone.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Usugōri tokenuru ike no kagami ni wa
yo ni tagui naki kage zo naraberu
On the mirror of the pond, where the thin ice has melted away, two forms stand side by side that the world can show no like of.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kumori naki ike no kagami ni yorozuyo o
sumubeki kage zo shiruku miekeru
On the unclouded mirror of the pond I see them clearly: two forms that are to dwell here together through ten thousand ages.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Toshitsuki o matsu ni hikarete furu hito ni
kyō uguisu no hatsune kikase yo
To one who has passed the years and months drawn always toward the little pine, waiting—let the warbler's first note of the year reach her, if only today.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Hikiwakare toshi wa furedomo uguisu no
sudachishi matsu no ne o wasureme ya
Though we were pulled apart and the years have gone by, could the warbler ever forget the root of the pine from which it took wing?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Mezurashi ya hana no negura ni kozutaite
tani no furusu o toeru uguisu
How rare a thing—that from its lodging among the flowers, passing from tree to tree, the warbler should come at last to the old nest in the valley.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Furusato no haru no kozue ni tazune kite
yo no tsune naranu hana o miru kana
I have come seeking the springtime of that old place among its boughs—and what I find is a bloom such as the world seldom shows.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kaze fukeba nami no hana sae iro miete
ko ya na ni tateru Yamabuki no saki
When the wind comes up, even the blossoms of the waves take on that color—is this, then, the famous Cape of Yamabuki?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Haru no ike ya Ide no kawase ni kayouran
kishi no yamabuki soko mo nioeri
Does this pond of spring run through, I wonder, to the shallows at Ide?—for the kerria on the bank is glowing even in the depths below.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kame no ue no yama mo tazuneji fune no uchi ni
oisenu na o ba koko ni nokosamu
There is no need to go seeking the mountain borne on the turtle's back; here, aboard this boat, let us leave behind the name of those who never grow old.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Haru no hi no urara ni sashite yuku fune wa
sao no shizuku mo hana zo chirikeru
The boat we pole onward through the soft spring sunlight—even the drops that fall from the pole come down as though they were blossoms.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Murasaki no yue ni kokoro o shimetareba
fuchi ni mi nagen na ya wa oshikeki
My heart is dyed for the sake of that purple; why should I grudge the name of one who threw himself into the wisteria's deep pool?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Fuchi ni mi o nagetsubeshi ya to kono haru wa
hana no atari o tachisarade mi yo
Whether you could really throw yourself into that pool—stay this spring where the flowers are, do not go, and let us see.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Hanazono no kochō o sae ya shitagusa ni
aki matsumushi wa utoku miruramu
Even the butterflies of this flower garden—will you look on them coldly, you who wait for autumn among the undergrowth?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kochō ni mo sasowarenamashi kokoro arite
yaeyamabuki o hedatezariseba
I should have let the butterflies carry me off to you—had you not meant to set the eightfold kerria between us.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu