Koromo utsu oto wa makura ni sugawara ya fushimi no yume o ikuyo nokoshitsu

English Translation

Pillowed on the sound
of robes being beaten, here
at Sugawara's
Fushimi, how many nights
have I left my dreams undone?

Meaning

Pillowed on the sound of fulling blocks at Fushimi in Sugawara, how many nights have I left the dreams I lay dreaming unfinished?

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems II 476

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the second poem of the fulling-block sequence. At Fushimi in Sugawara, with the sound of beaten robes at the pillow, the speaker's dreams have been broken off night after night. The headnote, continued from the preceding poem, gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author was a son of Regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi and a younger brother of Kujō Kanezane. He served four times as head of the Tendai school and wrote the history Gukanshō.
The scene is autumn night after night, at the village of Fushimi in Sugawara, a poetic place in Yamato Province in what is now western Nara City.
The direct occasion is not recorded.

The first line, "koromo utsu," means beating robes on the fulling block, presenting the subject.
The second line means "with the sound of beating at the pillow," and runs on to "su" in the third line.
The third line, "sugawara ya," is a pivot word joining "su," to make the sound one's pillow, with the place name Sugawara; "ya" is an exclamatory particle calling out the place.
In the fourth line, "fushimi" is a pivot word joining the place name Fushimi with the dreams one "sees" while "lying down" (fushi).
In the last line, "tsu" is perfective, and with "ikuyo" it means "how many nights have I left my dreams unfinished." The broken dreams caused by the fulling blocks are expressed through layered pivot words on place names, a poem of technical virtuosity. In 445 the deer's cry broke off an unfinished dream; here it is the sound of the fulling block, so the sound that breaks dreams shifts from deer to mallet. The next poem, 477, also speaks of "the path of dreams I do not know," sleep hindered by the sound of beating.

Author

Jien

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other