駿河なる宇津の山べのうつつにも
夢にも人にあはぬなりけり
夢にも人にあはぬなりけり
- Roma-ji
-
Suruga naru Utsu no yamabe no utsutsu ni mo
yume ni mo hito ni awanu narikeri - English Translation
-
On Mount Utsu
in Suruga—there, even in waking,
nor yet in dreams,
do I meet with her.
- Meaning
- On Mount Utsu in Suruga, neither in waking nor even in dreams do I meet with her.
- Commentary
-
Episode Nine: "Chinese robes"
One tale of the "Journey to the East."
A man, thinking himself of no use in this world, left the capital to seek a place to dwell in the Eastern Provinces, setting out with one or two companions.
On Mount Utsu in Suruga Province, he encountered an ascetic monk whom he had known in the capital. As the monk was going to the place where the person the man longed for was staying, he composed this poem as a letter.
In the poem he laments that he cannot meet the one he loves, not even in his dreams, and expresses his loneliness.
- Source
- Ise Monogatari
- Other
-
- From Mount Asama in Shinano, rising smoke— do people far and near not see it and take alarm?
- Clad in Chinese robes, long worn and grown familiar— because I have a wife so dear and close to me, how keenly I feel this distant journey.
- A mountain that knows no season— Mount Fuji’s peak: what time does it think it is, that like a fawn’s dappled back snow falls in scattered white?
- If you truly bear the name, come, let me ask you, O capital bird: does the one I think upon still live, or not?