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- Genji Monogatari
Miyamagi ni negura sadamuru hakodori mo
ikade ka hana no iro ni akubeki
Even the hako bird that has fixed its roost in the trees of the deep hills—how could it ever tire of the color of blossoms?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Yoso ni mite oranu nageki wa shigeredomo
nagori koishiki hana no yūkage
Seen only from outside and never broken off, the grief grows thick; and still what lingers is what I long for—that blossom in the evening light.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Imasara ni iro ni na ide so yamazakura
oyobanu eda ni kokoro kakeki to
Do not let it show in your face now, at this late hour—that you once set your heart on a mountain cherry branch beyond your reach.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Koiwaburu hito no katami to tenaraseba
nare yo nani tote naku ne naruramu
I have tamed you as a keepsake of the one I long for in vain—be used to me, then; and why is this the cry you give?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Tare ka mata kokoro o shirite Sumiyoshi no
kamiyo o hetaru matsu ni koto tou
Who else, knowing all that has passed, would come and speak to this pine at Sumiyoshi, standing here since the age of the gods?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Suminoe o ikeru kai aru nagisa to wa
toshi furu ama mo kyō ya shiruramu
That Suminoe is a shore where a life has been worth living—the old nun will know it, perhaps, only today.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Mukashi koso mazu wasurarene Sumiyoshi no
kami no shirushi o miru ni tsukete mo
It is the old days I cannot forget first of all, even as I stand here looking on the plain proof of the god of Sumiyoshi.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Suminoe no matsu ni yo fukaku oku shimo wa
kami no kaketaru yūkazura kamo
The frost that settled deep in the night on the pines of Suminoe—can it be a white mulberry garland the god himself has hung there?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kamibito no te ni torimotaru sakakiba ni
yū kakesouru fukaki yo no shimo
On the sacred branches the shrine servants hold up in their hands, white mulberry has been hung again—the frost of this deep night.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Haburiko ga yū uchimagai oku shimo wa
ge ni ichijiruki kami no shirushi ka
This frost, set down so that one takes it for the white mulberry the priests hang—surely it is the plainest proof that the god is here.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Okite yuku sora mo shirarenu akegure ni
izuku no tsuyu no kakaru sode nari
I rise to go and cannot tell what sky lies ahead in this dark before dawn; and from where has the dew come that wets my sleeve?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Akegure no sora ni uki mi wa kienanamu
yume narikeri to mite mo yamubeku
Let this wretched body vanish into the dark sky before dawn, so that it may be taken for a dream and be over with.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kuyashiku zo tsumi okashikeru aoigusa
kami no yuruseru kazashi naranu ni
To my own regret I plucked it and sinned—that blade of hollyhock, when it was no ornament the god had ever given me leave to wear.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Morokazura ochiba o nani ni hiroikemu
na wa mutsumashiki kazashi naredomo
Out of the paired leaves, why was it the fallen one I gathered up, when in name the two are ornaments twined close together?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Waga mi koso aranu sama nare sore nagara
soraobore suru kimi wa kimi nari
I myself have turned into something I was not; and you, feigning to know nothing, are still the very man you always were.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kietomaru hodo ya wa hebeki tamasaka ni
hachisu no tsuyu no kakaru bakari o
How long can it last, this while in which it stays without vanishing? It is no more than a lotus dew that happens to have settled there.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu