憂きながらあればある世にふるさとの
夢をうつつに覚ましかねても
夢をうつつに覚ましかねても
- Roma-ji
-
Ukinagara areba aru yo ni furusato no yume o utsutsu ni samashikanetemo
- English Translation
-
Wretched though it is,
while I live I pass my years
in the world that is,
unable to wake the dream
of my old home into the real.
- Meaning
- Wretched though it is, while I live I pass my years in the world as it is, unable to wake from the dream of my old home into reality.
- Commentary
-
Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1771
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the seventh of the poems on a heart that loathes the world yet cannot cast it off. Wretched as it is, while alive one passes the years in the world as it is, unable to wake from the dream of home into reality. It laments living on in the world without being able to wake from attachment to the days gone by. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author is given as "Anonymous," and the name has not come down.
The first line, "ukinagara," means "wretched though it is." The next poem opens with the same "ukinagara," and the two are set side by side.
The second line, "areba aru yo ni," means "in the world that is, while I live." Repeating the verb, it expresses living on as things go.
In the third line, "furusato no," "furu" is a pivot word meaning both "passing" one's years in the world and the "old" of "old home."
The fourth line, "yume o utsutsu ni," means "from dream into reality." The dream of home stands for the vanished past and lingering attachment.
The last line, "samashikanetemo," means "unable to wake it." Breaking off on "temo," it leaves as an afterimage a heart unable to wake from its dream.
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Suteyaranu waga mi zo tsuraki saritomo to omou kokoro ni michi o makasete
- Next Poem
-
Ukinagara nao oshimaruru inochi kana nochi no yo tote mo tanomi nakereba