駿河なる宇津の山辺のうつつにも
夢にも人に逢はぬなりけり
夢にも人に逢はぬなりけり
- Roma-ji
-
Suruga naru utsu no yamabe no utsutsu ni mo yume ni mo hito ni awanu nari keri
- English Translation
-
There in Suruga,
by the slopes of Mount Utsu,
in waking hours,
nor even in my dreams at night,
do I meet the one I love.
- Meaning
- Here by Mount Utsu in Suruga, whose name echoes "utsutsu," waking life, I meet you neither in waking hours nor even in my dreams.
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Travel Poems 904
Headnote: "Sent to the capital by way of a person he met at Mount Utsu in Suruga Province."
This is the second of two poems by Ariwara no Narihira on his journey to the East. By the slopes of Mount Utsu in Suruga, the speaker laments that he meets the one he loves neither in waking life nor in dreams, a poem of longing for someone in the capital. According to the headnote, it was sent to the capital in the care of a person he met at Mount Utsu.
No author is named, and the poem continues from the preceding one as a work of Ariwara no Narihira. Narihira was a son of Prince Abo, himself a son of Emperor Heizei, and is counted among the Six Poetic Immortals.
The scene is the journey down to the eastern provinces, at Mount Utsu in Suruga Province.
The direct occasion is entrusting a letter for the capital to a person he met at Mount Utsu.
The poem appears in Section 9 of The Tales of Ise, in the scene where the traveler meets an ascetic he knows at Mount Utsu and entrusts him with a letter for someone in the capital.
The first line, "suruga naru," means "in Suruga." It begins in the same form as "shinano naru," the first line of the preceding poem, setting two poems headed by province names side by side.
The second line, "utsu no yamabe no," means "by the slopes of Mount Utsu" in Suruga. Mount Utsu is a pass on the Tōkaidō, a famous place pictured in The Tales of Ise as a dark, narrow path overgrown with ivy and maples.
The third line, "utsutsu ni mo," means "in waking life." It repeats the sound of "Utsu" in the second line, so that the upper verse up to here serves as a preface introducing "utsutsu."
The fourth line, "yume ni mo hito ni," means "nor in dreams, the one I love." Since it was held that someone who thinks of you appears in your dreams, not meeting her even in dreams carries the fear that her heart has turned away.
The last line, "awanu nari keri," means "I do not meet her, I now see." "Nari keri" presents a fact newly realized, with a note of lament. This lament of not seeing the beloved in dreams forms a pair with 912, where someone from home appears in a traveler's dream.
- Author
- Ariwara no Narihira
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Other
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- In the morning mist the robe you wore was soaked through, and with it undried, are you now all alone, love, crossing over the mountain road?
- There in Shinano, from the peak of Asama the smoke rises up; could people both far and near see it and not wonder so?
- Pillowed on the grass, I feel the evening wind has turned cold at last; where I hear them beating cloth, should I ask there for lodging?
- Where the white clouds lie trailing far across the heights of the rugged hills, the plank bridge along the mountain— shall I cross it on this day?