- Top
- -
- Genji Monogatari
Inishie no aki sae ima no kokochi shite
nurenishi sode ni tsuyu zo okisou
Even the autumn of long ago feels like the present hour, and on sleeves already wet the dew comes settling again.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Tsuyukesa wa mukashi ima to mo omooezu
ōkata aki no yo koso tsurakere
This wetness I cannot tell as belonging to then or to now; taken all in all, it is autumn nights themselves that are hard to bear.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Karehatsuru nobe o ushi to ya naki hito no
aki ni kokoro o todomezarikemu
Was it that she found the withering fields hard to look on, that the one who is gone left no part of her heart with autumn?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Noborinishi kumoi nagara mo kaerimi yo
ware akihatenu tsune naranu yo ni
Even from above the clouds you have risen to, turn and look back here: I have had my fill at last of this world where nothing holds.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Waga yado wa hana motehayasu hito mo nashi
nani ni ka haru no tazune kitsuramu
At my house there is no one left to make much of the blossoms; for what, then, has spring come looking and found its way here?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Ka o tomete kitsuru kai naku ōkata no
hana no tayori to ii ya nasubeki
Then my coming here in search of the fragrance counts for nothing, and you will call it no more than an ordinary flower-viewing.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Ukiyo ni wa yuki kienamu to omoitsutsu
omoi no hoka ni nao zo hodo furu
Thinking I would go from this wretched world the way snow goes, and yet, past all expectation, I am here still, letting the time fall past.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Uete mishi hana no aruji mo naki yado ni
shirazugao nite kiiru uguisu
To a house whose mistress, who planted these flowers and watched them, is gone, the warbler comes and settles with no knowledge in its face.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Ima wa tote arashi ya hatemu naki hito no
kokoro todomeshi haru no kakine o
If I go now, shall I leave it to run wild in the end—the fence of this spring garden where the one who is gone had set her heart?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Naku naku mo kaerinishi kana kari no yo wa
izuko mo tsui no tokoyo naranu ni
Weeping, I have come back after all; this borrowed world is nowhere, in the end, a land that goes on unchanged.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kari ga ishi nawashiromizu no taeshi yori
utsurishi hana no kage o dani mizu
Since the seedbed water where the geese used to gather ran dry, I have not so much as seen the shadow of the flower it once held.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Natsugoromo tachikaetekeru kyō bakari
furuki omoi mo susumi ya wa senu
On this day at least, when the summer robes have been cut and changed, will the old remembering not come forward of itself?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Hagoromo no usuki ni kawaru kyō yori wa
utsusemi no yo zo itodo kanashiki
From this day, when I change into something thin as a feathered robe, this cast-off-cicada world grows sadder to me by far.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Sa mo koso wa yorube no mizu ni mikusa ime
kyō no kazashi yo na sae wasururu
It is only right that water-weed should gather in the god's still water; but today's ornament—and you have forgotten even its name.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Ōkata wa omoisuteteshi yo naredomo
aoi wa nao ya tsumiokasubeki
For the most part I have thought my way out of this world; and still, should I go on plucking at the heartvine and sinning by it?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Naki hito o shinoburu yoi no murasame ni
nurete ya kitsuru yamahototogisu
Did you come through the sudden rain of this evening, while I sit remembering one who is gone—cuckoo, down from the mountain?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu