awaken
from a siesta
wind chimes
Comment: in this poem, the author is woken up by the gentle sound of the wind chimes placed near the windows. The wind bells or fūrin 風鈴 are Japanese wind chimes used in the summer (natsu 夏); usually made out of glass or metal, they served in the past both to ward away evil spirits and to indicate the presence of wind and, therefore, a possible aerial spread of epidemics or diseases. Nowadays people simply place them in their houses to enjoy their cooling and relaxing sound. However, the ‘awakening’ referred to by the poet in the opening line does not seem to be limited to a mere biological act, rather encompassing a deeper, renewed awareness of the world (the ‘wind’ or kaze 風 and its fleetingness) which leads to a spiritual change. The double hyphen () serving as a cutting mark seems to (graphically) reproduce the intermittent sound of a fūrin when the wind blows.
