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- Genji Monogatari
Omou tomo kimi wa shiraji na wakikaeri
iwa moru mizu ni iro shi mieneba
Think of you I may, but you will never know it—for water that wells and seeps between the rocks shows no color at all.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Mase no uchi ni ne fukaku ueshi takenoko no
ono ga yoyo ni ya oiwakarubeki
The bamboo shoot I planted deep inside my hedge—must it grow up and part from me, to a life of its own?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Imasara ni ika naramu yo ka wakatake no
oihajimekemu ne o ba tazunen
Now, at this late day, what occasion could there be for the young bamboo to go seeking the root from which it first came up?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Tachibana no kaorishi sode ni yosoureba
kawareru mi to mo omooenu kana
Set beside the sleeve that was once fragrant with orange blossom, you do not seem to me a different person at all.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Sode no ka o yosouru kara ni tachibana no
mi sae hakanaku nari mo koso sure
Merely for being set beside that fragrant sleeve, must this body of mine, like the orange's fruit, come to nothing and be gone?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Uchitokete ne mo minu mono o wakakusa no
koto arigao ni musubōruramu
We did not lie down together, root beside root—then why should the young grass wear the look of one who has something to be tangled about?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Naku koe mo kikoenu mushi no omoi dani
hito no ketsu ni wa kiyuru mono ka wa
Even the fire of a creature that has no voice—can that be quenched at another's will? Still less this fire of mine.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Koe wa sede mi o nomi kogasu hotaru koso
iu yori masaru omoi narurame
Surely the firefly, which makes no sound and only burns its body away, feels more deeply than those who put it into words.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kyō sae ya hiku hito mo naki mikakure ni
ouru ayame no ne nomi nakaren
Even today no hand comes down to draw me up: I am the sweet flag hidden under the water, whose root can only be carried off in weeping.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Arawarete itodo asaku mo miyuru kana
ayame mo wakazu nakarekeru ne no
Brought up into sight, the water only looks the shallower—that root, that weeping, carried along with no telling one thing from another.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Sono koma mo susamenu kusa to na ni tateru
migiwa no ayame kyō ya hikitsuru
Even a horse, they say, will not touch this grass—the sweet flag at the water's edge. Was it drawn up, then, only for today?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Niodori ni kage o naraburu wakakoma wa
itsu ka ayame ni hikiwakarubeki
When would the young horse, that lays its reflection beside yours as the grebes do, ever be drawn away and parted from the sweet flag?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Omoiamari mukashi no ato o tazunuredo
oya ni somukeru ko zo tagui naki
At my wits' end I searched the traces of the old tales, but nowhere is there a match for this: a child who turns against her parent.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Furuki ato o tazunuredo ge ni nakarikeri
kono yo ni kakaru oya no kokoro wa
I searched the traces of the old tales and found, as you said, none at all—nowhere in this world a parent whose heart was such as this.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Nadeshiko no tokonatsukashiki iro o miba
moto no kakine o hito ya tazunemu
If a man saw how sweetly the pink holds its color through the days, surely he would go looking for the hedge where it first took root.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Yamagatsu no kakiho ni oishi nadeshiko no
moto no nezashi o tare ka tazunen
As for the pink that grew by some rough hedge in the hills—who would ever come looking for the place where its root first held?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu