utsutsu tomo yume tomo shiranu yo ni shi areba ari tote ari to tanomubeki mi ka
Whether ‘tis reality Or dream, I know not of This world, so Do I live? Is that something Upon which to rely?[i]
712
[i] See: Topic unknown. 世の中は夢か現か現とも夢とも知らずありてなければ yo no naka wa / yume ka utsutsu ka / utsutsu tomo / yume tomo shirazu / arite nakereba ‘Is this world of ours / A dream? Or is it real? / If it be real, / Or dream, I know not; / Here, and yet not, so…’ Anonymous (Kokinshū XVIII: 942)
The two princes of former Emperor Yōzei held a poetry match, occupying the Left and Right on the topics of ‘love on waking’ and ‘love after a dawn parting’.
Love on Waking
Left
ねてよりもさめてののちのわびしきはつらきうつつにまどふなりけり
nete yori mo samete no nochi no wabishiki wa tsuraki utsutsu ni madou narikeri
More than sleeping After waking is Sad and lonely— Cruel reality Leaves me lost.
1
Right
くやくやとまちてねざめにおきたればつきよりほかにいるひとぞなき
kuyakuya to machite nezame ni okitareba tsuki yori hoka ni iru hito zo naki
Such painful thoughts Await me on waking When I arise Other than the moon There is no one here at all.
yume nomi mo kayoedo aranu arikiji ka utsutsu ni ikade miru yoshi mogana
Simply in my dreams Do I go back and forth, yet have no Lover’s path to walk, so In the waking world, somehow, I wish I had a way to see her!
21
This poem is an acrostic with ‘bellflower’ (kichikau) contained in arikiji ka utsutsu. Old Japanese was written without indicating voicing, so chi and ji would have been identical at the time.
