Tsuyu harau nezame wa aki no mukashi nite mihatenu yume ni nokoru omokage - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

露払ふ寝覚めは秋の昔にて
見果てぬ夢に残る面影

Roma-ji: Tsuyu harau nezame wa aki no mukashi nite mihatenu yume ni nokoru omokage
English Translation: Brushing off the dew,
my waking is the autumn
of long ago still,
and in the unfinished dream
your face lingers on with me.
Meaning: As I wake and brush away the dew of tears, it is still the autumn of long ago, and your face lingers in the dream from which I woke before it ended.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 1326

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On the topic 'Love Forgotten.'"
This is the ninth poem of the sequence of love's grief sung through autumn imagery. Waking and brushing away the dew is still the autumn of long ago, the speaker says, and your face lingers in the unfinished dream. Continuing from the preceding poem, it was composed on the topic "Love Forgotten."
The author, "Shunzei's Daughter, of the Master of the Empress Dowager's Household," is Shunzei's Daughter. A granddaughter of Fujiwara no Shunzei, Master of the Empress Dowager's Household, she was adopted as his daughter. She was the wife of Minamoto no Michitomo.

The first line, "tsuyu harau," means "brushing off the dew of tears on my sleeve."
The second line, "nezame wa aki no," means "waking in the night is of an autumn," running on into the third line.
The third line, "mukashi nite," means "still as long ago." Even now that she is forgotten, only the tears on waking remain as in the autumns of the past.
The fourth line, "mihatenu yume ni," means "in a dream from which I woke before it ended."
The last line, "nokoru omokage," ends on a noun. Like "hito no omokage" in Takakura of Hachijō-in's poem, 1270, it sets the beloved's face in the last line, and through the face that remains after waking it shows the unforgetting heart of one who has been forgotten.
Author: Shunzei's Daughter
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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