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- Genji Monogatari
Hototogisu kimi ni tsutenamu furusato no
hanatachibana wa ima zo sakari to
Cuckoo, carry word to her for me—that here at home the orange trees are at the very height of their flowering.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Tsurezure to waga nakikurasu natsu no hi o
kakotogamashiki mushi no koe kana
Through this summer day I spend weeping, with nothing to do, comes an insect's voice, as though it were laying the blame on me.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Yo o shiru hotaru o mite mo kanashiki wa
toki zo to mo naki omoi narikeri
Even watching the fireflies, which know when night has come, what saddens me is this longing of mine that keeps to no hour at all.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Tanabata no ause wa kumo no yoso ni mite
wakare no niwa ni tsuyu zo okisou
The Weaver's meeting I watch as something beyond the clouds and apart from me, while in this garden of parting the dew settles deeper still.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kimi kouru namida wa kiwa mo naki mono o
kyō o ba nani no hate to iuramu
There is no bound at all to the tears of longing for her; and today—what is it they are calling the end of?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Hito kouru waga mi mo sue ni nariyukedo
nokori ōkaru namida narikeri
This body of mine that longs for her draws toward its end, and yet what remains in abundance turns out to be tears.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Morotomo ni okiishi kiku no shiratsuyu mo
hitori tamoto ni kakaru aki kana
The white dew on the chrysanthemums we used to sit up and set out together falls this autumn onto one sleeve alone.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Ōzora o kayou maboroshi yume ni dani
miekonu tama no yukue tazune yo
You who cross the great sky, conjurer—go and seek out for me the whereabouts of a soul that will not come to me even in dreams.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Miyabito wa Toyonoakari to isogu kyō
hikage mo shirade kurashitsuru kana
Today, while the court bustles about the Feast of Abundant Light, I have let the day go by without even knowing the sun's light.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Shide no yama koenishi hito o shitau tote
ato o mitsutsu mo nao madou kana
Meaning to follow the one who has crossed the mountain of death, I look at the traces of her hand and am the more lost.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kakitsumete miru mo kai nashi moshiogusa
onaji kumoi no keburi to o nare
Gathered up and looked at, they come to nothing—these salt-weeds; let them be smoke and go up into the same sky as she did.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Haru made no inochi mo shirazu yuki no uchi ni
irozuku ume o kyō kazashitemu
Not knowing whether I shall live until spring, let me wear in my hair today this plum that has taken color in the snow.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Chiyo no haru mirubeki hana to inoriokite
waga mi zo yuki to tomo ni furinuru
Having prayed that you were a flower to see a thousand springs, I find my own body has grown old along with the falling snow.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Mono omou to suguru tsukihi mo shiranu ma ni
toshi mo waga yo mo kyō ya tsukinuru
Lost in my own thoughts, not knowing the months and days as they went past—is it today that the year, and my life with it, come to an end?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Obotsukana tare ni towamashi ika ni shite
hajime mo hate mo shiranu waga mi zo
It weighs on me, and of whom am I to ask, when I know neither the beginning nor the end of this body of mine?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kokoro arite kaze no niowasu sono no ume ni
mazu uguisu no towazu ya arubeki
Since the wind bears the scent of this garden plum with a purpose, how should the warbler not come to it before any other?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu