Quotes from Murasaki Shikibu

There is a time for everything; and all people, but more especially women, should be constantly careful to watch circumstances, and not to air their accomplishments at a time when nobody cares for them. They should practise a sparing economy in displaying their learning and eloquence, and should even, if circumstances require, plead ignorance on subjects with which they are familiar.

Remember the unmoored boat floats about.

A woman who has nothing to recommend her is as rare as one who is perfect in every way.

New grass, you don't even know where to sprout and grow. How can I, a drop of dew, vanish away in the air leaving you alone?

He felt her there beside him, just as she had always been on evenings like this when he had called for music, and when her touch on her instrument, or her least word to him, had been so much her own; except that he would have preferred even to this vivid dream her simple reality in the dark.

Al poner demasiado empeño en olvidar, sólo recuerdo; ¿por qué, cuando uno trata de olvidar, no olvida?

As Genji mused about the transitory nature of life, intense feelings of weariness and distaste for the world overwhelmed him. How much longer must he go on living in it now that he had been left behind?

It is very easy to criticize others but far more difficult to put one's own principles into practice, and it is when one forgets this truth, lauds oneself to the skies, treats everyone else as worthless, and generally despises others, that one's own character is clearly revealed.

The monotony stirs many bitter recollections

And so, in the end, it is simply impossible to choose one woman over another. That is how it is with them: each is bound to be trying, one way or another.

She sent him out the message, "Perhaps I am getting worse day by day, but today, at any rate, I feel very ill. Do come in, then." He was greatly moved and wondered what her condition could be, because this unaccustomed warmth was alarming.

Please teach her to understand others' feelings a little! Why should I go on courting her affection if she really cannot bear it?

The midnight bell, the bird of dawn? But ah! they're sorrowful indeed When loosen'd was the damask zone.

Then she asked me to pass into the inner room to rest awhile. So in we went to the inner room, hand in hand.

La historia está llena de sabios que no se han conocido nunca a sí mismos

Her shock and dismay at his forward behaviour gave her an allure he found irresistibly attractive.

Basta così. Non tutti sono al corrente di ciò che è accaduto, – la fermò egli, e la Prima Signora che era al suo fianco intervenne: – Non è il caso di preoccuparsi, e comunque ho tanto sonno che non avrei sentito nulla, – disse, coprendosi le orecchie con le maniche.

with local administration. These ladies are often very attractive, and are not seldom introduced at Court and enjoy high favor. And successes depend

La scrittura era informale, come a voler confondere le idee, ma rivelava buon gusto e raffinatezza e ne fu piacevolmente sorpreso. Si rivolse Koremitsu: – Chi abita nella casa sul lato ovest? Ne avete sentito parlare? «Ecco che ci risiamo», pensò l'altro, ma si guardò bene dall'esprimerei propri pensieri.

Those who linger on and those all too swiftly gone live as dewdrops, all, and it is a foolish thing to set one's heart on their world.

Perhaps this was indeed the way so remarkably accomplished a man was destined to meet his end,' he replied, 'because two or three years ago he began looking very downcast and melancholy, and I often warned him, despite my own want of sense, that a man who sees too far into life and thinks about things too deeply becomes too detached from them and to be attractive and only loses whatever luster he may have had, but he seemed merely to find my opinion shallow.

Sve je besciljno na mome putu kroz oblake. Stid me je što me postojani mjesec uop?e gleda.

F]ew people have never hurt anyone or been guilty of any serious lapse [...]

In haste to plunge into morning mists, You seem to have no heart for blossoms here.