Koromo utsu neyama no io no shibashiba mo shiranu yumeji ni musubu tamakura

English Translation

Robes are beaten near
a hut on the mountain peak—
like its brushwood, oft
I know not the path of dreams
as I pillow on my arm

Meaning

In a hut on the mountain where robes are beaten, I lay my head on my arm, yet seldom find the path of dreams.

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems II 477

Headnote: "An autumn poem for the Poetry Contest in 1,500 Rounds."
This is the third poem of the fulling-block sequence. In a mountain hut where the sound of beating robes echoes, the speaker makes a pillow of the arm in search of a path of dreams seldom reached. According to the headnote, it was composed as an autumn poem for the Poetry Contest in 1,500 Rounds.
The author was a son of Fujiwara no Sanemune who later rose to Chancellor and founded the Saionji house.
The scene is an autumn night, in a mountain hut within hearing of beaten robes.
The direct occasion was the Poetry Contest in 1,500 Rounds, completed around 1202.

The first line, "koromo utsu," means beating robes, and through their "sound" (ne) it leads into "ne" in the second line.
In the second line, "ne" plays on the "sound" of beating and "ne," a peak, so that "neyama" means a mountain peak; "io" is a rough dwelling in the mountains.
The third line, "shibashiba mo," is drawn from the "brushwood" (shiba) of the hut into the homophonous "shibashiba," "often."
The fourth line, with "shibashiba mo," means "on a path of dreams I have seldom traveled," showing that the sound of beating rarely lets the speaker dream.
The last line, "musubu tamakura," is making a pillow of one's arm, and ends on a noun. The loneliness of seeking rare dreams in a mountain hut filled with the sound of beating is expressed by a technique that leads from word to word through sound—from "sound" to "peak," from "brushwood" to "often." Where 476 spoke of dreams left unfinished night after night, this poem says the speaker hardly knows the path of dreams at all, deepening the theme of sleep hindered by the fulling blocks.

Author

Fujiwara no Kintsune

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other