| Text(Edward G. Seidensticker; The Tale of Genji） |
| <Lavender> p094-09 The bishop too gave farewell presents: a rosary of carved ebony ‡ which Prince Shotoku had obtained in Korea, still in the original Chinese box, wrapped in a netting and attached to a branch of cinquefoil pine; several medicine bottles of indigo decorated with sprays of cherry and wisteria and the like; and other gifts as well, all of them appropriate to the mountain setting. <Lavender> p097-28 "Brief as the time till the autumn tempests come To scatter the flowers―so brief your thoughts of her. "I am deeply troubled." <The Festival of the Cherry Blossoms> p155-24 Though the cherry blossoms had for the most part fallen, two trees, perhaps having learned that mountain cherries do well to bloom late, * were at their belated best. <Suma> p228-23 Tying it to a cherry branch from which the blossoms had fallen, he addressed it to Omyobu, whom Fujitsubo had put in charge of her son's affairs. "Today I must leave. I regret more than anything that I cannot see you again. Imagine my feelings, if you will, and pass them on to the prince. "When shall I, a ragged, rustic outcast, see again the blossoms of the city?" She explained everything to the crown prince. He gazed at her solemnly. <Suma> p243-05 The sapling cherry Genji had planted the year before sent out a scattering of blossoms, the air was soft and warm, and memories flooded back, bringing him often to tears. <Suma> p243-15 "Fond thoughts I have of the noble ones on high, And the day of the flowered caps has come again." <A Rack of Cloud> p340-08 Gazing out at his Nijo garden, Genji thought of the festivities that spring a dozen years before. <The Maiden> p380-16 The full bloom of the cherries would have coincided with the anniversary of Fujitsubo's death, but the early blossoms were very beautiful. The Suzaku Palace had been carefully repaired and redecorated. <The Maiden> p384-14 The hills were high in the southeast quarter, where spring-blossoming trees and bushes were planted in large numbers. The lake was most ingeniously designed. Among the plantings in the forward parts of the garden were cinquefoil pines, maples, cherries, wisteria, yamabuki,* and rock azalea, most of them trees and shrubs whose season was spring. Touches of autumn too were scattered through the groves. <Butterflies> p419-04 The branches caught in mists from either side were like a tapestry, and far away in Murasaki's private gardens a willow trailed its branches in a deepening green and the cherry blossoms were rich and sensuous. In other places they had fallen, but here they were still at their smiling best, and along the galleries wisteria was beginning to send forth its lavender. <Butterflies> p422-14 Murasaki had prepared the floral offerings. She chose eight of her prettiest little girls to deliver them, dressing four as birds and four as butterflies. The birds brought cherry blossoms in silver vases, the butterflies yamabuki in gold vases. In wonderfully rich and full bloom, they completed a perfect picture. <Butterflies> p423-01 Akikonomu's end of the lake, a breeze came up to scatter a few cherrypetals. <The Typhoon> p466-08 He had likened the other two ladies to the cherry and the yamabuki―and might he liken his sister to the wisteria? There was just such elegance in wisteria trailing from a high tree and waving in the breeze. <New Herbs Part One> p558-06 "Blossoms should have sweet scents. Think what the cherry blossom would be if it had the scent of the plum―we would have an eye for no other blossom. The plum comes into bloom when there is no contest. How fine if we could see it in competition with the cherry." <New Herbs Part One> p581-42 Though the players were now under the cherry directly before the south stairs, they had no eye for the blossoms. Genji and Prince Hotaru were at a corner of the veranda. <New Herbs Part One> p582-05 He seemed very much in control of himself despite the abandon, and cherry petals fell about him like a flurry of snow. He broke off a twig from a dipping branch and went to sit on the stairs. "How quick they are to fall," said Kashiwagi, coming up behind him. "We much teach the wind to blow wide and clear."* <New Herbs Part One> p585-21 "The generous warbler, moving from tree to tree. Neglects the cherry alone among them all." And he added softly: "And the cherry, among them all, seems right for the bird of spring."* This seemed downright impertinent, though Yugiri did think he understood his friend's reasons. <New Herbs Part Two> p602-31 Over a robe of pink Murasaki wore a rob of a rich, deep hue, a sort of magenta, perhaps. Her hair fell in a wide, graceful cascade. She was of just the right height, so beautiful in every on of her features that they added up to more than perfection. A cherry in full bloom―but not even that seemed an adequate simile. <New Herbs Part Two> p619-21 But someone else whispered: "It does not do to be too beautiful and virtuous. You do not live long. 'Nothing in this world would be their rival,' the poet said.* He was talking about cherry blossoms, of course, but it is so with her too. When such a lady lives to know all the pleasures and successes, her fellows must suffer. Maybe now the Third Princess will enjoy some of the attention that should have been hers all along. She has not had an easy time of it, poor thing." <The Oak Tree> p652-46 There were cherry blossoms in the forward parts of the garden. "This year alone"*―but the allusion did not seem a very apt one. "If we wish to see them," † he said softly, and added a poem of his own, not, however, as if he had a specific audience in mind. "Although a branch of this cherry tree has withered, It bursts into new bloom as its season comes." <The Rites> p716-35 "This must be your own house when you grow up. I want the rose plum and the cherries over there to be yours. You must take care of them and say nice things about them, and sometimes when you think of it you might put flowers on the altar." † He nodded and gazed up at her, and then abruptly, about to burst into tears, he got up and ran out. <The Wizard p725-42 "My cherry," said Niou. "Can't we do something to keep it going? Maybe if we put up curtains all around and fasten them down tight. Then the wind can't get at it." He was so pretty and so pleased with his proposal that Genji had to smile. <Bamboo River> p758-30 It was now the Third Month. The cherries were in bud and then suddenly the sky was a storm of blossoms and falling petals. Young ladies who lived a secluded life were not likely to be charged with indiscretion if at this glorious time of the year they took their places out near the veranda. <Bamboo River> p759-25 Sending one of the women down into the garden, a veritable cherry orchard, he had her break off an especially fine branch. "Where else do you find blossoms like these?" said one of the sisters, taking it up in her hand. "When you were children you quarreled over that cherry. Father said it belonged to you"―and he nodded to his older sister―"and Mother said it belonged to you, and no one said it belonged to me. <Bamboo River> p759-31 I did not exactly cry myself to sleep but I did feel slighted. It is a very old tree and it somehow makes me aware of how old I am getting myself. And I think of all the people who once looked at it and are no longer living." By turns jocular and melancholy, the brothers paid a more leisurely visit than usual. <Bamboo River> p760-08 When their brothers had left, the ladies turned again to the Go board. They now made the disputed cherry tree their stakes. "Best two of three," said someone. <Bamboo River> p761-13 The blossoms had been good for an afternoon, and now the stiff winds of evening were tearing at them. Said the lady who had been the loser: "They did not choose to come when I summoned them, And yet I tremble to see them go away." <Bamboo River> p771-16 Her father had been fond of her but her mother had not. Even in such trivial matters as the contest for the cherry tree her mother had sided with her sister. The Reizei emperor let it be known that he too was resentful. <Beneath the Oak> p801-17 The high sky with fingers of mist trailing across it, the cherries coming into bloom and already shedding their blossoms, † "the willows by the river," ‡ their reflections now bowing and now soaring as the wind caught them-it was a novel sight for the visitor from the city, and one he was reluctant to leave. <Beneath the Oak> p818-30 "Last year along the way I saw those blossoms. This year, no mist between, I mean to have them." <Beneath the Oak> p818-35 "Our house is robed in densest mists of black. Who undertakes to guide you to its blossoms?" <Trefoil Knots> p854-12 "With flowers that fade, with leaves that turn, they speak Most surely of a world where all is fleeting." <Early Ferns> p883-20 Gazing in the direction of the Nijo mansion, where the cherries were in full bloom, Kaoru thought of the cherries, now masterless, at the Uji villa. He might have gone on to ask how they would be responding to the winds, but the old poem* did not offer much comfort. <A Boat upon the Waters> p1001-40 "At Uji this morning there was a man who works for Lord Tokikata,the governor of Izumo. He had a very interesting letter, on purple tissue aper, tied to a cherry branch, and he gave it to a woman at the west door. |