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- Genji Monogatari
Waking from my dream at the deep mountain wind's blast blowing every way, here is the sound of falling water that draws out my tears
Woken from my dream by the wind sweeping down off the deep hills, I hear the waterfall, and it draws the tears out of me.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
At this mountain stream that has of a sudden made your sleeve wet with tears, would a heart that dwells here clear be stirred and troubled at all
At this mountain water that has suddenly wet your sleeve, would a heart long settled and clear here ever be stirred?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
I will go and tell the people of the palace of this hill cherry, so that they may come and look before the wind gets here first
I shall go back and tell them at the palace of this mountain cherry, so that they may come and see it before the wind does.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
It is as though I had waited and met at last the udumbara— and my eyes will not shift now to the cherry of deep hills
It is as if I had waited and at last been granted the udumbara flower; my eyes will not turn even to the cherries of these deep hills.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Opening rarely the pine door of this deep hill where I keep shut in, I have looked upon the face of a flower never seen
Opening for once the pine door of these deep hills, I have looked on a flowering face I had never seen before.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
In the dusk I saw faintly the color of one flower, and this morn the mist that rises makes it hard for me to rise and go
Having glimpsed that flower's color faintly in the dusk, I find this morning that the rising mist makes it hard to set out.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Is it truly so, that where the flower stands you find it hard to leave? I shall watch the look of that sky where the mist is rising
Is it really true that you find it hard to leave where the flower stands? I shall watch the look of that misted sky and see.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
That face does not leave this body of mine at all— the mountain cherry, though with all the heart I had I left my heart there with it
Her face will not leave me for a moment—that mountain cherry—though I left every part of my heart behind there with it.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Only while they hold, the cherries on that ridge where the storm wind is up, do you keep your heart with them— and how frail a thing that is
Your heart stays with those ridge-top cherries only while the storm has not yet scattered them—and how frail a love that is.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Not shallowly, as the name of Mount Asaka says, do I love you— then why does the mountain well keep its reflection so far
I do not think of you shallowly, whatever Mount Asaka's name may say—so why does the mountain well keep its reflection so far from me?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
That mountain well which, once drawn from, is said to leave regret behind it— while it stays as shallow, should one be shown a face in it
That mountain well one is said to regret ever drawing from—while it stays so shallow, how should anyone be shown a reflection in it?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Even having met, nights of meeting come so rare— here inside this dream I would that this body here might lose itself once for all
Even now that we have met, such nights come so rarely—let this body of mine simply lose itself here inside the dream.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Will people pass on this as a tale of the world, though I make of my wretched life beyond compare a dream from which none awakes
Will people hand this down as a tale of the world, even if I make of my incomparable misery a dream that never ends?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Ever since I heard that one cry of the young crane, the boat that labors among the reeds cannot bear how hard the going has grown
Ever since I heard that one cry of the young crane, I have been like a boat caught among the reeds, unable to go on and unable to bear it.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
When shall I pluck it with my own hand and behold this young field grass here that runs down in its roots to the purple gromwell's own root
How soon may I pluck with my own hand and keep this young grass of the fields, whose roots run down to the roots of the purple gromwell?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
At Ashiwaka bay the seaweed is hard to find and hard to see, am I a wave that stands here and turns back with nothing gained
Hard as it is to find the seaweed in Ashiwaka bay, am I a wave that merely rises and falls back with nothing?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu