Utsutsu o mo utsutsu to sara ni omoeneba yume o mo yume to nani ka omowan

現をも現とさらに思へねば
夢をも夢と何か思はん

Roma-ji: Utsutsu o mo utsutsu to sara ni omoeneba yume o mo yume to nani ka omowan
English Translation: Waking life itself
I cannot think, not at all,
to be truly real;
how then could I ever think
that a dream is just a dream?
Meaning: Since I cannot think of waking life as truly real, how could I ever think of dreams as merely dreams?
Commentary: One Hundred Poems 1515

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Ten Poems on Impermanence"
The third of the ten poems on impermanence. Since he cannot even think of reality as real, he has no reason to distinguish dreams as dreams.
It shows a sense of the world's transience so deep that the line between waking and dreaming dissolves. In a parallel structure repeating utsutsu and yume twice each, it expresses the view that waking and dreaming are equally fleeting.

First line, “utsutsu o mo”: even waking reality.
Second line, “utsutsu to sara ni”: as real at all, repeating utsutsu of the first line.
Third line, “omoeneba”: ne is the perfective of the negative, "since I cannot think so."
Fourth line, “yume o mo yume to”: paired with the first two lines, "a dream as a dream."
Fifth line, “nani ka omowan”: ka concludes with n in attributive form, a rhetorical question, "how could I think so?"
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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