Tag Archives: Murasaki Shikibu

SKKS XVI: 1567

When the Hoshō-ji Lay Priest and Former Grand Minister [Fujiwara no Michinaga] plucked a maidenflower, and said Murasaki Shikibu must be able to compose an appropriate poem.

をみなへしさかりの色をみるからにつゆのわきける身こそしらるれ

ominaeshi
sakari no iro o
miru kara ni
tsuyu no wakikeru
mi koso shirarure
The maidenflowers’
Hues are at their best,
I see, so
The dewfall must have distinguished
‘Tween them and me–how well I know it!

Murasaki Shikibu
紫式部

SKKS XVI: 1499

Someone who had been a childhood friend came to see her briefly after some years on about the tenth day of the Seventh Month; they raced the faint moon home, so she composed:

めぐりあひて見しやそれともわかぬまに雲がくれにしよはの月かげ

meguriaite
mishi ya sore tomo
wakanu ma ni
kumogakurenishi
yowa no tsuki kage
You came by, and
I wondered if ’twas you, yet
Before I could be sure,
‘Twas hidden in the clouds:
The midnight moonlight.

Murasaki Shikibu
紫式部

SKKS XVI: 1485

In a year when blossom remained on the trees on the Festival Day in the Fourth Month, she gave some of this blossom to the Imperial Messenger to put in his hair, writing this on the leaves:

神世にはありもやしけんさくら花けふのかざしにおれるためしは

kamu yo ni wa
ari mo ya shaken
sakurabana
kyo no kazashi ni
oreru tameshi wa
In the age of Gods,
Were there such things, I wonder?
As cherry blossom
On this day, for your headdress
Plucked.

Murasaki Shikibu
紫式部

SKKS VIII: 820

At a time when she was saddened by the fleeting nature of the world while looking at some pictures of named places in Michinoku.

見し人のけぶりになりしゆふべより名ぞむつましきしほがまのうら

mishi hito no
keburi ni narishi
yûbe yori
na zo mutsumashiki
shiogama no ura
Him, I saw,
Turn into smoke, and
Since that evening,
Even the name fills me with fond thoughts:
The bay at Shiogama.

Murasaki Shikibu
紫式部

SKKS VIII: 817

After Koshōjō of the Jōtōmon Palace died, she saw a love letter she had been writing lying in something, and sent it to the Kaga Junior Councillor with this.

たれかよにながらへて見んかきとめしあとはきえせぬかたみなれども

tare ka yo ni
nagaraete min
kakitomeshi
ato wa kiesenu
katami naredomo
Who, within this world,
Will go on and on?
Her brush is halted
And the words: a never fading
Keepsake be, yet…

Murasaki Shikibu
紫式部

SKKS VII: 722

In the Ninth Month [of the year] when Retired Emperor Go-Ichijō was born, on a night when the moon was shining without any hindrance, the Greater Nijō Regent [Fujiwara no Norimichi], then being a Captain, invited several young women of the house and boarded boats on the lake; while rowing around the ‘pines on Nakajima’, it was beautiful so:

くもりなくちとせにすめる水のおもにやどれる月のかげものどけし

kumorinaku
chi tose ni sumeru
mizu no omo ni
yadoreru tsuki no
kage mo nodokeshi
Without a trace of cloud,
For a thousand years upon the limpid
Water’s surface
The lodging moon
Light brings peace.

Murasaki Shikibu
紫式部