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- Genji Monogatari
Kurenai no hitohanagoromo usuku tomo
hitasura kutasu na o shi tatezu wa
Thin though the crimson of this once-dyed robe may be, let no talk arise that would rot her name away entirely.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Awanu yo o hedatsuru naka no koromode ni
kasanete itodo mi mo shi mi yo to ya
On the sleeves that already lie between us through nights we do not meet, you lay yet another—do you mean me to look, and look again?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kurenai no hana zo ayanaku utomaruru
ume no tachie wa natsukashikeredo
The crimson flower I find distasteful, for no reason I can name—though the blossom on the plum's upright branch draws my heart.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Mono omou ni tachimaubeku mo aranu mi no
sode uchifurishi kokoro shiriki ya
Burdened as I am, I was in no state to rise and dance—did you understand the heart behind the waving of those sleeves?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Karahito no sode furu koto wa tōkeredo
tachii ni tsukete aware to wa miki
The waving sleeves of the men of Cathay belong to a distant age, but in the way you rose and moved I saw something that touched me.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Ikasama ni mukashi musuberu chigiri nite
kono yo ni kakaru naka no hedate zo
What kind of bond can we have tied in an earlier life, that in this one such a wall should stand between us?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Mite mo omou minu hata ika ni nagekuramu
ko ya yo no hito no madou chō yami
If seeing brings such grief, how much must the one who cannot see him suffer? Is this the darkness people speak of, that a parent wanders in?
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Yosoetsutsu miru ni kokoro wa nagusamade
tsuyukesa masaru nadeshiko no hana
I look at it and set it beside the one I long for, and my heart is not eased; the dew only lies heavier on the pink.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Sode nururu tsuyu no yukari to omou ni mo
nao utomarenu yamatonadeshiko
Even thinking of it as kin to the dew that wets the sleeve, I find this yamato pink is not a thing I can turn away from.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kimi shi koba tenare no koma ni karikawamu
sakari sugitaru shitaba nari tomo
If only you would come, I would cut it and feed your accustomed horse—though the lower leaves are well past their prime.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Sasa wakeba hito ya togamemu itsu to naku
koma natsukumeru mori no kogakure
If I pushed in through the bamboo grass, someone would surely object—in that forest shade where horses are always made welcome.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Tachinururu hito shi mo araji azumaya ni
utate mo kakaru amasosoki kana
Surely no one would stop and get wet at this eastern hut—and yet how wretchedly the rain keeps dripping down on it.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Hitozuma wa ana wazurawashi azumaya no
maya no amari mo nareji to zo omou
Another man's wife—what a troublesome business; like the eaves of this eastern hut, I think I had better not grow too close.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Tsutsumumeru na ya moriidemu hikikawashi
kaku hokoroburu naka no koromo ni
The name you keep wrapped away may yet leak out—through this middle robe of ours, torn open in the pulling.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Kakure naki mono to shiru shiru natsugoromo
kitaru o usuki kokoro to zo miru
Knowing perfectly well that it conceals nothing, you came here in a thin summer robe—and I take that thinness for your heart.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu
Uramite mo iu kai zo naki tachikasane
hikite kaerishi nami no nagori ni
There is no use in my resentment now, in the wake of waves that rose one over another and then drew back and left nothing behind.
Genji Monogatari - Murasaki Shikibu