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- Genji Monogatari
Asakeredo iwama no mizu wa sumihatete
yado moru kimi ya kakehanarubeki
Shallow though it is, the water among the stones runs clear and stays; and she who kept this house must go from it.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Tomokaku mo iwama no mizu no musubōre
kaketomubeku mo omooenu yo o
However it may be, the water among the rocks is bound fast; and I can see nothing in this world that would hold me here either.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Miyamagi ni hane uchikawashi iru tori no
mata naku netaki haru ni mo aru kana
You perch wing to wing with him in the mountain tree; no spring was ever so hard for me to bear as this.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Nadote kaku haiaigataki murasaki o
kokoro ni fukaku omoisomekemu
Why should I have dyed my heart so deeply in a purple that will not take, and that I cannot come at?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Ika naran iro to mo shiranu murasaki o
kokoro shite koso hito wa somekere
This purple, whose shade I never understood—with what care you must have gone about the dyeing of it.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kokonoe ni kasumi hedateba ume no hana
tada ka bakari mo nioi koji to ya
If the ninefold mist comes down between us, plum blossom, am I not to have even so much as your fragrance?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Ka bakari wa kaze ni mo tsute yo hana no e ni
tachinarabubeki nioi naku tomo
At least let this scent be carried to you on the wind, though I have no fragrance fit to stand beside the blossoms on the branch.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kakitarete nodokeki koro no harusame ni
furusatobito o ika ni shinobu ya
In this quiet spring rain falling through the long days, how do you remember, I wonder, the man of that old place?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Nagame suru noki no shizuku ni sode nurete
utakata hito o shinobazarame ya
Lost in the long rain, my sleeves wet through with the drops from the eaves—how should there be a moment, brief as foam, when I do not remember you?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Omowazu ni Ide no nakamichi hedatsu tomo
iwade zo kouru yamabuki no hana
Unlooked for, the road through Ide divides us; and still, saying nothing of it, I go on loving the kerria flower.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Onaji su ni kaerishi kai no mienu kana
ikanaru hito ka te ni nigiruran
Of the eggs that hatched together in one nest, one is nowhere to be seen; in whose hand, I wonder, is it held so close?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Sugakurete kazu ni mo aranu kari no ko o
izukata ni ka wa torikakusubeki
This egg of no account, hidden away in the nest—who would take such a thing and hide it anywhere?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Oki tsu fune yorube namiji ni tadayowaba
sao sashiyoramu tomari oshie yo
If the boat far out is drifting the wave-roads with nowhere to put in, I shall pole my way across—only tell me where you mean to moor.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Yorube nami kaze no sawagasu funabito mo
omowanu kata ni isozutai sezu
Though the boatman has nowhere to put in and the wind harries him, he does not feel his way along the shore in a quarter he never thought of.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Hana no ka wa chirinishi eda ni tomaranedo
utsuramu sode ni asaku shimame ya
The scent does not stay on the branch the flower has fallen from; yet how lightly could it sink into the sleeve it passes to?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Hana no e ni itodo kokoro o shimuru kana
hito no togamen ka o ba tsutsumedo
It is to that branch my heart clings the closer, though I keep hidden the scent that others would find fault with.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu