Sode ni fuke sazo na tabine no yume mo miji omou kata yori kayou urakaze

English Translation

Blow against my sleeves;
surely I shall have no dreams
sleeping on my way,
you who come to me from where
my heart longs, wind from the bay.

Meaning

Blow against my sleeves, wind from the bay that comes from where my heart longs to be, for surely I will have no dreams as I sleep on this journey.

Commentary

Book Ten Travel Poems 980

Headnote: "When the men presented travel poems at the Poetry Bureau."
This is the first of a sequence of poems on dreams and sleeves on the road. Knowing he will surely have no dreams on the road, the speaker bids the bay wind that comes from where his love is to blow against his sleeves, the longing of a night on the road. According to the headnote, it was composed when the men presented travel poems at the Poetry Bureau.
The author, "Teika Ason," is Fujiwara no Teika. A son of Fujiwara no Shunzei, he was a poet of the early Kamakura period and one of the compilers of the Shin Kokin Wakashū.
The scene is a night sleeping on the road by the sea, at a lodging on the shore where the bay wind blows.
The direct occasion is an occasion at the Poetry Bureau when the men presented travel poems. The Poetry Bureau was the office established by Retired Emperor Go-Toba for the compilation of the Shin Kokin Wakashū.
It draws on Genji's poem in the "Suma" chapter of The Tale of Genji, "The waves of the bay that mingle with my weeping as I pine: does the wind blow from where my love is?", taking the words "omou kata yori," "ura," and "kaze."

The first line, "sode ni fuke," means "blow against my sleeves." Addressing the bay wind in the imperative, the poem breaks after the first line.
The second line, "sazo na tabine no," means "surely, of sleeping on the road." "Sazo na" strengthens a conjecture.
The third line, "yume mo miji," means "I shall have no dreams." Closing with the negative conjecture "ji," the poem breaks after this third line. Where 976 sees a wife in a dream on the road, here the traveler sleeps without even dreams.
The fourth line, "omou kata yori," means "from the direction of the one I love." Taking words from Genji's poem in the "Suma" chapter, it lays over this poem the sorrow of sleeping on a shore far from the capital.
The last line, "kayou urakaze," means "the bay wind that comes," naming the one addressed with a noun ending. Longing that cannot travel in dreams is entrusted to the bay wind that comes from the beloved's direction. After the preceding exchange, poems on dreams and sleeves on the road follow from here.

Author

Fujiwara no Teika

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other