Au koto mo ima wa nakine no yume narade itsu ka wa kimi o mata wa mirubeki

English Translation

To meet you again
there is now no way at all—
if not in the dream
of sleep that comes with weeping,
when could I see you once more?

Meaning

There is no longer any meeting you; if not in the dream that comes as I weep myself to sleep, when could I ever see you again?

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 811

Headnote: "When, after Retired Emperor Ichijō had passed away, she did nothing but long for him and grieve, and he appeared faintly in her dream."
This is the fourth poem of the sequence on grief at losing someone close. It says that there is no longer any meeting, and asks when, if not in the dream that comes from weeping herself to sleep, she could see him again. According to the headnote, after Emperor Ichijō died she did nothing but long for him and grieve, and when he appeared faintly in her dream she composed this poem.
A daughter of Fujiwara no Michinaga, the author became the empress of Emperor Ichijō and the mother of Emperors Go-Ichijō and Go-Suzaku, and later received the title Jōtōmon'in. "Ichijō'in" is Emperor Ichijō, who died in Kankō 8 (1011).
The scene is a night after Emperor Ichijō's death, and the place is not recorded.
The direct occasion is the late Emperor Ichijō's faint appearance in her dream.

The first line, "au koto mo," means "meeting you, too." It places actual meeting at the opening.
In the second line, "ima wa nakine no," "naki" is a pivot word meaning both "naki," no longer any, of meeting, and "naki" in "nakine," sleeping while weeping.
In the third line, "yume narade," "narade" means "if not." It restricts it to the dream of sleeping in tears.
In the fourth line, "itsu ka wa kimi o," "itsu ka wa" is rhetorical, meaning "when could I ever? I never could." It is completed by the attributive "beki" in the last line.
In the last line, "mata wa mirubeki," "beki" expresses possibility, meaning "could I see you again?" It is a lament that she can meet the late emperor only in dreams. 779 of this book is the poem Emperor Ichijō sent to the author on the day he took holy orders, so that within the same book the sorrow of the emperor who departs leaving her behind and the sorrow of the empress who is left form a pair. Following the waking tears of the preceding poem, 810, this poem sings of a dream seen in sleep.

Author

Fujiwara no Shōshi

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other