うたた寝は荻吹く風に驚けど
長き夢路ぞ覚むる時なき
長き夢路ぞ覚むる時なき
- Roma-ji
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Utatane wa ogi fuku kaze ni odorokedo nagaki yumeji zo samuru toki naki
- English Translation
-
From a passing doze
the wind that stirs the reeds
wakes me with a start,
but from the long road of dreams
there is no time of waking.
- Meaning
- From a brief doze the wind in the reeds startles me awake, but from the long road of dreams there comes no time of waking.
- Commentary
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Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1804
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the third of the poems expressing brooding through an autumn scene. The wind in the reeds wakes one from a doze, but from the long road of dreams that is this deluded world there is no waking. Contrasting a short dream with a long one, it speaks of the impermanence of a human world from which there is no waking out of delusion. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Sutoku-in Gyoka," meaning a poem of Retired Emperor Sutoku, is Emperor Sutoku. A son of Emperor Toba, after abdicating he was defeated in the Hōgen Disturbance, exiled to Sanuki, and died there.
The first line, "utatane wa," is dozing off. As a short sleep, it pairs with "the long road of dreams" in the fourth line.
The second line, "ogi fuku kaze ni," means "at the sound of wind in the reeds." The rustle of reed leaves was sung of as the herald of autumn.
The third line, "odorokedo," means "though I wake with a start." "Do" is concessive.
The fourth line, "nagaki yumeji zo," is the long road of dreams, that is, the human world caught in the delusion of birth and death. The particle "zo" reaches to the last line.
The last line, "samuru toki naki," closes the kakari-musubi of "zo" with the attributive form of the adjective "naki." Setting the brief dream of a doze against the long dream of life, it laments a self that cannot wake from delusion.
- Author
- Emperor Sutoku
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Arashi fuku mine no momiji no hi ni soete moroku nariyuku waga namida kana
- Next Poem
-
Take no ha ni kaze fukiyowaru yūgure no mono no aware wa aki to shimo nashi