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- Genji Monogatari
Yama no ha no kokoro mo shirade yuku tsuki wa
uwa no sora nite kage ya taenamu
The moon travels on without knowing the heart of the ridge it moves toward—may its light not fade away up there in the empty sky?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Yūtsuyu ni himo toku hana wa tamaboko no
tayori ni mieshi enishi ni koso arikere
That the flower opens in the evening dew and shows its face is owing, after all, to the bond that first appeared to me on the road.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Hikari ari to mishi yūgao no uwatsuyu wa
tasokaredoki no sorame narikeri
The dew on the evening face flower that I took for light was only a trick of my eyes in the dusk.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Mishi hito no keburi o kumo to nagamureba
yūbe no sora mo mutsumashiki kana
When I look up and take the smoke of the one I knew for a cloud, even the evening sky becomes dear to me.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Towanu o mo nadoka to towade hodo furu ni
ika bakari ka wa omoi midaruru
You never ask why I do not ask after you, and as the days pass, how greatly my heart is thrown into confusion.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Utsusemi no yo wa uki mono to shirinishi o
mata koto no ha ni kakaru inochi yo
I had learned that this world is a bitter thing, and yet my life still hangs on a few words from you.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Naku naku mo kyō wa waga yū shitahimo o
izure no yo ni ka tokete mirubeki
Weeping, I tie this under-cord with my own hands today—in what world will I ever see it loosened again?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Honoka ni mo nokiba no ogi o musubazu wa
tsuyu no kagoto o nani ni kakemashi
Had I never, however faintly, tied a knot in that reed at the eaves, on what could I now hang this dew-slight complaint of mine?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Honomekasu kaze ni tsukete mo shitaogi no
nakaba wa shimo ni musubōretsutsu
Even at the wind that hints its meaning, this reed below is half bound up in frost and cannot loosen itself.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Au made no katami bakari to mishi hodo ni
hitasura sode no kuchinikeru kana
While I kept it only as a token to hold me until we met again, my sleeve has worn quite away with tears.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Semi no ha mo tachikaetekeru natsugoromo
kaesu o mite mo ne wa nakarekeri
The thin summer robe, light as a cicada's wing, belongs to a season already gone—and seeing it sent back, I cannot help crying aloud.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Suginishi mo kyō wakaruru mo futamichi ni
yukukata shiranu aki no kure kana
The one who is gone and the one who leaves today take two different roads, and where either of them goes I cannot tell, on this autumn evening.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Oitatamu arika mo shiranu wakakusa o
okurasu tsuyu zo kiemu sora naki
Not knowing where this young grass will grow, the dew that must leave it behind has no sky in which to vanish.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Hatsukusa no oiyuku sue mo shiranu ma ni
ikade ka tsuyu no kiemu to suramu
While no one can yet see where this young grass will grow, how could the dew already be making ready to vanish?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Hatsukusa no wakaba no ue o mitsuru yori
tabine no sode mo tsuyu zo kawakanu
Ever since I saw those young leaves of new grass, the sleeve of my traveler's bed has never once been dry of dew.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Makura yū koyoi bakari no tsuyukesa o
miyama no koke ni kurabezaranamu
The tears of a single night, spent on a pillow of bound grass—please do not set them beside the mossy sleeves of those who live in these deep hills.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu