Murasaki Shikibu's poem in response to Michinaga's poem which was sent with a plum tree branch (representing a woman) and asked: "Being notorious for sourness (love), I think none pass by without breaking a branch!", date 1008, 1009 or 1010

Sources:

The Diary of Murasaki Shikibu (Murasaki Shikibu Nikki), written from circa 1008 to 1010

Original version, edited by Hokiichi Hanawa:

https://ja.wikisource.org/wiki/%E7%B4%AB%E5%BC%8F%E9%83%A8%E6%97%A5%E8%A8%98_(%E7%BE%A4%E6%9B%B8%E9%A1%9E%E5%BE%9E)

Modernised edition, edited by Eiichi Shibuya:

https://ja.wikisource.org/wiki/%E7%B4%AB%E5%BC%8F%E9%83%A8%E6%97%A5%E8%A8%98_(%E6%B8%8B%E8%B0%B7%E6%A0%84%E4%B8%80%E6%A0%A1%E8%A8%82)

English translation in Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan (1920), compiled and translated by Annie Shepley Omori and Kochi Doi

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Diaries_of_Court_Ladies_of_Old_Japan/2

Above: Murasaki Shikibu in a poem by Utagawa Kunisada.

The poem:

人にまたおられぬ者を誰か此すきものそとは口ならしけん

Romaji transliteration (in reconstructed Early Middle Japanese):

Fito ni mata wora renu mono wo dare ka kono suki mono so to wa kutinara siken

With modernised spelling:

人にまだ折られぬものをたれかこの 　　すきものぞとは口ならしけむ めざましう。

Romaji transliteration:

Hito ni mada ora renu mono o dare ka kono suki mono zo to wa kuchinarashi kemu mezamashiu.

With English translation:

No one in passing has ever broken the plum tree

Who then can know if it be sour?

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