Could someone help me with two sentences?

[Dariat]

I have some trouble understanding the following two sentences.

おれはかなしく来た方をふりかへる。盛岡の電燈は微かにゆらいでねむさうにならび只公園のアーク燈だけ高い処でそらぞらしい気焔の波を上げてゐる。

There are some weird verb forms in there I'm not really sure I understand. Is ふりかへる the same as ふりかえる? I didn't find an dictionary entry for the former but I found two for the latter: "to look back" and "to change; to make up for". Is 上げてゐる the same as 上げている?

It would be great if someone could tell me what those sentences mean, especially the second one.

[TrueNappa]

おれはかなしく来た方をふりかへる。
I looked back on the sad path I came from.

盛岡の電燈は微かにゆらいでねむさうにならび只公園のアーク燈だけ高い処でそらぞらしい気焔の波を上げてゐる。

The Morioka electric lights raises up wave of false spirit, shaking dimly, sleepily lined up; it was just the rows of park arc's light in their high place.

I don't have a whole lot of time to play with this (and where is it from?), but you are looking at classical Japanese that's fairly close to modern. I'd say it's something from early to mid 20th century. I don't think my quick impromptu translation is much good, but it should help you out somewhat, I hope.

[Dariat]

Thanks a lot. I now understand the grammatical functions of most parts of the sentences. I am still not sure about ねむさう. What grammatical form is it?

The sentences are from 宮沢賢治's 秋田街道 ( http://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000081/fi ... _8264.html ).

[hatch_jp]

ねむさう is an old writing style of ねむそう.

examples;
contemporary - old
言う　－　言ふ
書こう　－　書かう
使う －　使ふ

http://www32.ocn.ne.jp/~gaido/kana/kana0.htm

[TrueNappa]

Yes, and:

ふりかへる　－＞　ふりかえる

[Dariat]

@ hatch_jp, TrueNappa:
Thanks a lot!