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- Genji Monogatari
Togamu na yo shinobi ni shiboru te mo tayumi
kyō arawaruru sode no shizuku o
Do not chide me for the drops on my sleeve that show at last today, now the hand that secretly wrung them has slackened its hold.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Asamidori wakaba no kiku o tsuyu ni te mo
koki murasaki no iro to kakeki ya
This chrysanthemum, its young leaves pale green—did anyone dream, by so much as a drop of dew, that it would take the deep purple's hue?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Futaba yori nadataru sono no kiku nareba
asaki iro waku tsuyu mo nakariki
Since from its first two leaves it was a chrysanthemum of a famous garden, no dew ever fell that set it apart as a shallow hue.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Nare koso wa iwa moru aruji mishi hito no
yukue wa shiru ya yado no mashimizu
You are the master who keeps this house, clear spring that seeps through the rocks; do you know where she has gone, the one we used to see here?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Naki hito no kage dani miezu tsurenakute
kokoro o yareru isarai no mizu
It will not even show me the vanished one's reflection, but flows unconcerned and at its ease, this shallow garden stream.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Sonokami no oiki wa mube mo kuchinuramu
ueshi komatsu mo koke oinikeri
The old tree of those days has rotted away, no doubt, and well it might—for even the young pine we planted has grown its moss.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Izure o mo kage to zo tanomu futaba yori
nezashi kawaseru matsu no suezue
On both alike I lean for shade—these pines whose roots have been entwined since they were two green shoots, on to the far ends of their branches.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Iro masaru magaki no kiku mo oriori ni
sode uchikakeshi aki o kourashi
The hedge chrysanthemum, its color deepening now, seems at times to long for that autumn when we danced with trailing sleeves.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Murasaki no kumo ni magaeru kiku no hana
nigori naki yo no hoshi ka to zo miru
These chrysanthemums, so like the purple clouds of good omen, I take for the very stars of a reign without a stain.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Aki o hete shigure furinuru satobito mo
kakaru momiji no ori o koso mine
Through autumn on autumn the cold rains have fallen, and I, a villager grown old, have never seen maples such as these.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Yo no tsune no momiji to ya miru inishie no
tameshi ni hikeru niwa no nishiki o
Do you take them for the common maples of the world—this garden brocade laid down after the old example of long ago?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Sashinagara mukashi o ima ni tsutaureba
tama no ogushi zo kamusabinikeru
Kept in the hair just as it was, it has carried the past down into the present, and this jeweled comb has grown old and holy with the years.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Sashitsugi ni miru mono ni mo ga yorozuyo o
tsuge no ogushi no kamusaburu made
I would go on seeing such good fortune, one after the other, through ten thousand ages, until this boxwood comb itself has grown old and holy.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Wakaba sasu nobe no komatsu o hikitsurete
moto no iwane o inoru kyō kana
Leading with me the young pines of the meadow where new leaves are coming out, today I pray for the rock at their root, that it stand unchanged.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Komatsubara sue no yowai ni hikarete ya
nobe no wakana mo toshi o tsumubeki
Drawn along, perhaps, by the long years still ahead of that grove of young pines, the shoots of the meadow too will gather years of their own.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Me ni chikaku utsureba kawaru yo no naka o
yukusue tōku tanomikeru kana
Here before my eyes it shifts, and shifting it becomes something else; and on such a bond I had set my trust for all the years ahead.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu