I am not a teacher, but an awakener.

Taken at face value, the line distinguishes between instruction that transfers settled knowledge (“teacher”) and a more catalytic role that provokes perception, curiosity, or self-reliance (“awakener”). It implies that the most valuable influence is not didactic—telling people what to think—but experiential and invitational, stirring them to notice, question, and discover on their own. Read in a literary context, it also aligns with a view of art as an instrument of consciousness: a poem (or a poet) does not deliver a lesson so much as it heightens attention and reorients the reader toward the world. The aphorism thus frames education as ignition rather than delivery.