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- Genji Monogatari
Not knowing the heart of the ridge line it moves toward, the moon goes onward— and up in the empty sky will its light not fade and end
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
The flower that loosed its cords in the evening dew did so, after all, out of the bond that first showed by the way of that roadside
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
That upper dew laid on the evening face flower, which I saw as light— it was nothing but a trick my eyes played at dusk that day
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
When I look and take the smoke of the one I knew to be that cloud there, even this evening sky grows close and dear to me somehow
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
You do not ask why I do not ask after you, and the days wear on— how greatly, all this while, has my heart been torn and confused
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
I had come to know this cast-off shell of a world is a bitter thing, and still my life hangs upon a few leaves of words from you
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
Weeping as I tie with my own hands, on this day, this under-sash cord— in what world am I to see it loosened, opened again
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
Had I never once, faint as it was, tied a knot in that eaves-reed there, on what could I now hang out this small complaint of the dew
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
Even at the wind that comes hinting through the reeds, this low reed beneath is half bound up in the frost and cannot open itself
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
While I looked on it as a keepsake to hold me until we should meet, this sleeve of mine has wholly worn away and rotted through
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
Like the cicada, I have changed and left behind that summer garment, and seeing it returned now my voice cries out all the same
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
The one who has passed and the one who parts today go by two separate roads, and where either of them goes I know not, this autumn dusk
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
Not knowing the place where this young grass will grow up, the dew that leaves it behind has no sky at all in which it could fade away
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
While the young grasses end is not yet to be seen, how can it be that the dew should already make ready to fade and be gone
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
Since I looked upon the young leaves of that new grass, the sleeve I lie on here in my traveler's bed has not once been dry of dew
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
The dew of one night, this night alone, on the grass you bind as pillow— do not set it up beside the moss of these deep mountains
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