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- Genji Monogatari
Yorube nami kakaru nagisa ni uchiyosete
ama mo tazunenu mokuzu to zo mishi
Having nowhere else to go, she was washed up on this shore of mine, and I took her for a scrap of weed that no fisher would come looking for.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Onaji no no tsuyu ni yatsururu fujibakama
aware wa kake yo kagoto bakari mo
I am the lavender flower withered by the dew of that same field; spare me some pity, if only for the form of it.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Tazunuru ni harukeki nobe no tsuyu naraba
usumurasaki ya kagoto naramashi
If, on looking into it, we proved to be dew from some far-off field, then the pale purple bond might at least serve you as a pretext.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Imoseyama fukaki michi o ba tazunezute
Odae no hashi ni fumimadoikeru
Never having looked into the deep road of Imose-yama, I went straying with my letters at the bridge whose name means a thread cut short.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Madoikeru michi o ba shirade Imoseyama
tadotadoshiku zo tare mo fumimishi
Not knowing the road on which you went astray, nor anything of Imose-yama, anyone might have gone stumbling over those letters and read them.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kazu naraba itoi mo semashi nagatsuki ni
inochi o kakuru hodo zo hakanaki
Were I an ordinary man I should have hated this ninth month; yet I stake my life on it, and how frail a thing that is.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Asahi sasu hikari o mite mo tamazasa no
hawake no shimo o ketazu mo aranamu
Though you look upon the light of the morning sun, do not let the frost between the leaves of the bamboo be melted quite away.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Wasurenamu to omou mo mono no kanashiki o
ikasama ni shite ikasama ni semu
Even to resolve on forgetting you is full of sorrow—how am I to manage it, and what am I to do?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kokoro mote hikari ni mukau aoi dani
asa oku shimo o onore ya wa ketsu
Even the mallow, which turns of its own accord toward the light, does not melt away the frost that has settled in the morning.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Oritachite kumi wa minedomo Watarigawa
hito no se to hata chigirazarishi o
I never went down to the water and drew from it; and yet we never agreed that you should cross that last river on another man's back.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Mitsusegawa wataranu saki ni ikade nao
namida no mio no awa to kienan
Before I must cross the river of the three fords, let me somehow become foam on the current of my own tears, and vanish.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kokoro sae sora ni midareshi yukimoyo ni
hitori saetsuru katashiki no sode
My heart, no less than the sky, went astray in that night of falling snow, and the one sleeve spread beneath me lay cold and alone.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Hitori ite kogaruru mune no kurushiki ni
omoiamareru honoo to zo mishi
Sitting alone with her breast burning so, it was that, I thought, which overflowed at last and rose from her as a flame.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Uki koto o omoisawageba samazama ni
kuyuru keburi zo itodo tachisou
When I turn over what happened my heart is stirred, and the smoke of my regretting rises thicker, this way and that.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Ima wa tote yado karenu tomo narekitsuru
maki no hashira wa ware o wasuru na
Though I leave this house now, saying all is over, do not forget me, pillar of cypress that I have known so long.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Nareki to wa omoiizu tomo nani ni yori
tachitomarubeki maki no hashira zo
Even if it remembers us as those who knew it long, on what grounds could we stay on here now, pillar of cypress?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu