百年の花に宿りて過ぐしてき
この世は蝶の夢にざりける
この世は蝶の夢にざりける
- Roma-ji
-
Momotose no hana ni yadorite sugushiteki kono yo wa chō no yume ni zarikeru
- English Translation
-
For a hundred years
I have passed my days at rest
upon the blossoms —
this world, I see, has been
nothing but a butterfly's dream
- Meaning
- For a hundred years I lived lodged among the blossoms; this world, I now see, was only a butterfly's dream.
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Miscellaneous Poems II 378
The poet has spent a long life like a butterfly lodged among the blossoms, yet looking back, this world was like a butterfly's dream. Drawing on Zhuangzi's tale of dreaming he was a butterfly and, on waking, not knowing whether he had dreamed of the butterfly or the butterfly was dreaming of him, the poem expresses the transience of life.
Poem 411 of this book also sings of a life of "a hundred years," saying the frailty of the self is felt only after its midpoint has passed.
The first line, "momotose no" (of a hundred years), names a long span, a human lifetime.
The second line, "hana ni yadorite," refers to a butterfly resting on blossoms, overlaid with a life spent in a bright world.
The third line, "sugushiteki," combines the perfective "tsu" and past "ki": I have passed my days, with a break after the third line.
The fourth line, "kono yo wa chō no," draws on Zhuangzi's butterfly dream.
The final line, "yume ni zarikeru," is a contraction of "ni zo arikeru," a kakari-musubi of "zo" and the attributive exclamatory "keri": it was a dream.
- Author
- Oe no Masafusa
- Source
- Shika Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Shirakawa no nagare o tanomu kokoro o ba tare ka wa sora ni kumite shiru beki
- Next Poem
-
Hisakata no Ama no Kaguyama izuru hi mo waga kata ni koso hikari sasurame