- Top
- -
- Genji Monogatari
Hakanashi ya kasumi no koromo tachishi ma ni
hana no himo toku ori mo kinikeri
How brief a thing: no sooner is the robe of haze cut out than the season has come for the flowers to loosen and open.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Miru hito mo arashi ni mayou yamazato ni
mukashi oboyuru hana no ka zo suru
There will be no one left to see them in this hill village where the storm goes astray, and yet the scent of the flowers recalls the old days.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Sode fureshi ume wa kawaranu nioi nite
negome utsurou yado ya kotonaru
The plum my sleeve brushed is unaltered in its scent; is it the dwelling, moving root and all, that will be otherwise?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Saki ni tatsu namida no kawa ni mi o nageba
hito ni okurenu inochi naramashi
Had I thrown myself into the river of tears that comes before all else, mine would have been a life not left behind by the one who went.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Mi o nagemu namida no kawa ni shizumite mo
koishiki zeze ni wasure shi mo seji
Though I sank into that river of tears you would throw yourself into, I could not forget the shoals of the times I long for.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Hito wa mina isogitatsumeru Sode no ura ni
hitori moshio o taruru ama kana
Everyone is bent on setting out, on cutting the cloth of their sleeves, and here alone is a nun letting the salt drops fall.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Shiotaruru ama no koromo ni kotonare ya
ukitaru nami ni nururu waga sode
What is there to set it apart from the nun's robe where the salt drops fall—this sleeve of mine, soaked by waves with nothing to hold to?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Arifureba ureshiki se ni mo aikeru o
mi o Ujigawa ni nagetemashikaba
Having lived so long, I have come upon a shoal of gladness after all—whereas had I thrown myself into the Uji river.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Suginishi ga koishiki koto mo wasurenedo
kyō wa hata mazu mo yuku kokoro kana
I do not forget how I long for the one who is gone, and yet before all else, today my heart goes as it would wish.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Nagamureba yama yori idete yuku tsuki mo
yo ni sumiwabite yama ni koso ire
When I look at it, even the moon that comes out from the hills and crosses the sky finds this world hard to dwell in, and goes back into the hills.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Shinateru ya Nio no umi ni kogu fune no
maho naranedomo aimishi mono o
Like the sail of a boat rowed out on the lake of grebes, it was nothing straight or full—and yet there was a time when we looked on each other.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Yo no tsune no kakine ni niou hana naraba
kokoro no mama ni orite mimashi o
Were it a flower blooming at an ordinary hedge, I might have broken it off and looked at it as I wished.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Shimo ni aezu karenishi sono no kiku naredo
nokori no iro wa asezu mo aru kana
It is a garden chrysanthemum that withered, unable to bear the frost, and yet the colour left behind has not faded.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kesa no ma no iro ni ya medemu oku tsuyu no
kienu ni kakaru hana to miru miru
Shall I praise the colour of this one morning's brief while, seeing in it a flower that lasts only until the dew has gone?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Yosoete zo mirubekarikeru shiratsuyu no
chigiri ka okishi asagao no hana
I should have looked on her as a likeness and kept her for myself: this morning glory that the white dew pledged itself to and left behind.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kienu ma ni karenuru hana no hakanasa ni
okururu tsuyu wa nao zo masareru
Beside the frailty of a flower that withers before the dew is gone, the dew left behind is frailer still.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu