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- Genji Monogatari
Kimi ga tame oreru kazashi wa murasaki no
kumo ni otoranu hana no keshiki ka
The spray I broke off for my sovereign's headdress makes a show of flowers that yields nothing to the clouds of deep purple.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Yo no tsune no iro to mo miezu kumoi made
tachinoboritaru fujinami no hana
It does not look like a colour of the common world: this wisteria, whose flowering waves have risen as high as the clouds.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kaodori no koe mo kikishi ni kayou ya to
shigemi o wakete kyō zo tazunuru
Wondering whether the face-bird's voice runs close to the one I once heard, I have parted the thickets and come seeking it today.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Mishi hito no katashiro naraba mi ni soete
koishiki zeze no nademono ni semu
If she is a stand-in for the one I knew, I will keep her by me and make of her the figure into which I rub my longing.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Misogigawa zeze ni idasamu nademono o
mi ni sou kage to tare ka tanomamu
A figure to be put out at the shallows of the river of purification—who would trust in such a thing as a shadow that stays at one's side?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Shime yuishi kohagi ga ue mo mayowanu ni
ikanaru tsuyu ni utsuru shitaba zo
The upper leaves of the small hagi I had roped off are not disturbed; what dew, then, has turned the colour of the lower leaves?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Miyagino no kohagi ga moto to shiramaseba
tsuyu mo kokoro o wakazu zo aramashi
Had I known it was rooted in the hagi of Miyagi Field, the dew would not have divided its heart at all.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Hitaburu ni ureshikaramashi yo no naka ni
aranu tokoro to omowamashikaba
How wholly glad I would be, if I could believe this were a place apart from the world and no part of it at all.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Ukiyo ni wa aranu tokoro o motomete mo
kimi ga sakari o miru yoshi mogana
Even if I must look for a place outside this bitter world, I would find some way to see you in the height of your bloom.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Taehatenu shimizu ni nadoka naki hito no
omokage o dani todomezarikemu
Why did this water, which has never run dry, not keep for me even the shadow of the faces of those who are gone?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Sashitomuru mugura ya shigeki azumaya no
amari hodo furu amasosoki kana
Is the goosegrass so thick that it stops the doorway? At the eaves of this eastern hut I have waited too long in the falling rain.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Katami zo to miru ni tsukete wa asatsuyu no
tokoroseki made nururu sode kana
Seeing her only as a keepsake of the dead, I find my sleeves soaked with the morning dew until there is no room left in them.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Yadorigi wa iro kawarinuru aki naredo
mukashi oboete sumeru tsuki kana
The lodging tree has changed its colour in this autumn, and yet how clear the moon is, recalling the days of old.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Sato no na mo mukashi nagara ni mishi hito no
omogawari seru neya no tsukikage
The name of this place is as it was of old, and yet the face of the one I knew is altered in this moonlight of the bedchamber.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Mada furinu mono ni wa aredo kimi ga tame
fukaki kokoro ni matsu to shiranamu
It is not yet an old and worn-out thing; and for your sake I would have you know that I wait here with a deep heart.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Nagaki yo o tanomete mo nao kanashiki wa
tada asu shiranu inochi narikeri
Though I promise you long years, what grieves me still is only this: that our lives know nothing of tomorrow.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu