Aware naru kokoro no yami no yukari tomo mishi yo no yume o tare ka sadamemu - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

あはれなる心の闇のゆかりとも
見し夜の夢を誰か定めむ

Roma-ji: Aware naru kokoro no yami no yukari tomo mishi yo no yume o tare ka sadamemu
English Translation: That it came from the
darkness of a heart in love,
a heart pitiful,
who could judge the dream of that
night when we two lay as one?
Meaning: Who could decide that the dream of the night we met was only born of the darkness of a pitiful heart lost in love?
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 1300

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On the topic 'Love That Met and Then Could Meet No More,' at the poetry contest of the third month of Kennin 1."
This is the second poem of the sequence on love that met and then could meet no more. Who could decide, the speaker asks, that the dream of the night we met came from the darkness of a heart lost in love? Continuing from the preceding poem, it was composed on the topic "Love That Met and Then Could Meet No More" at the poetry contest of the third month of Kennin 1.
The author, "Kintsune, Provisional Middle Counselor," is Saionji Kintsune. A son of the Palace Minister Fujiwara no Sanemune, he later rose to grand minister and founded the Saionji house. Provisional Middle Counselor was his office when the collection was compiled.
The poem draws on Ariwara no Narihira's poem in Love Poems III of the Kokinshū, "I wandered lost in the darkness of a heart gone blind: whether it was dream or waking, let the world decide." That poem also appears in The Tales of Ise.
In the main text, the first line reads "aware naru," which does not match "aware naso" in the reading line. Here the main text is followed.

The first line, "aware naru," means "sorrowful, a heart troubled by love."
The second line, "kokoro no yami no," likens a heart that has lost its judgment through love to darkness, taking up "the darkness of the heart" in Narihira's poem.
The third line, "yukari tomo," means "as something born of it."
The fourth line, "mishi yo no yume o," means "the dream of the night we met." Taking up "must I make them a dream?" from the preceding poem, it doubts whether the meeting itself was a dream.
The last line, "tare ka sadamemu," is rhetorical: "who could decide?" Where Narihira said the world should decide whether it was dream or waking, this poem answers that no one can, showing that the memory of the meeting remains, neither dream nor reality.
Author: Fujiwara no Kintsune
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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