Yume kayou michi sae taenu kuretake no fushimi no sato no yuki no shitaore

English Translation

Even the road of dreams
has now been broken off—
at Fushimi,
village of the jointed bamboo,
the snow snaps the stalks

Meaning

Even the road that runs through my dreams has been cut off—here at Fushimi, where the bamboo snaps beneath the weight of snow.

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 673

Headnote: "On 'Snow at Fushimi Village,' drawn when poets at the same house drew place names by lot and composed winter poems."
This is the seventeenth poem of the snow sequence. Woken at Fushimi village by the sound of bamboo snapping under the weight of snow, the speaker finds that even the road of dreams has been cut off. According to the headnote, it was composed on "Snow at Fushimi Village," drawn by lot when poets at the same house of Fujiwara no Yoshitsune as the preceding poem drew place names and composed winter poems.
The author, "Ariie Ason," is Fujiwara no Ariie. A son of Fujiwara no Shigeie, he was a poet of the Rokujō Fujiwara house and one of the compilers of the Shin Kokin Wakashū.
The scene is a night of falling snow, and the place is Fushimi village in Yamashiro Province.
The direct occasion is the topic "Snow at Fushimi Village," drawn by lot when poets composed winter poems on place names at the house of Fujiwara no Yoshitsune.

The first line, "yume kayou," means "by which one goes in dreams" to the beloved.
The second line, "michi sae taenu," means "even that road has been cut off," with "sae" as an adverbial particle of addition and "nu" as a perfective auxiliary. The poem breaks after the second line. Taking up "fumoto no michi wa taenuran" in the preceding poem, it shifts what is cut off from a real path to the road of dreams.
The third line, "kuretake no," means "of the kuretake bamboo," bamboo with many joints, and from its "fushi," joints, it leads to "fushi" in the fourth line.
The fourth line, "fushimi no sato no," names a poetic place in Yamashiro Province, around present-day Fushimi Ward in Kyoto. "Fushi" carries both the "joints" of the bamboo and the place name Fushimi.
The last line, "yuki no shitaore," closes on a noun, naming bamboo breaking under the weight of snow. Placed last in inverted order, it reveals the cause: the sound of snapping bamboo woke the sleeper and cut off the road of dreams. It shares its last line with 667 in this book; there bamboo snapping by the fence is heard on waking, here the snapping bamboo breaks the dream itself.

Author

Fujiwara no Ariie

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other