涙川身も浮きぬべき寝覚めかな
はかなき夢の名残ばかりに
はかなき夢の名残ばかりに
- Roma-ji
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Namidagawa mi mo ukinubeki nezame kana hakanaki yume no nagori bakari ni
- English Translation
-
In a river of tears
I could float away myself,
this waking at night;
all for nothing but the trace
of a dream so brief and frail
- Meaning
- I wake in the night so steeped in tears that I could float away on their river, all for no more than the lingering trace of a fleeting dream.
- Commentary
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Book Fifteen Love Poems V 1386
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the seventh poem of the dream sequence. For no more than the lingering trace of a fleeting dream, the speaker wakes weeping enough to float on a river of tears. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "the Monk Jakuren," was a nephew of Fujiwara no Shunzei who became his adopted son, with the lay name Sadanaga. He took vows as Jakuren and was appointed a compiler of the Shin Kokinshū, but died before its completion.
The first line, "namidagawa," likens abundant tears to a river. It is the same word as the third line of 1357: there the river of tears made the self sink, while here it makes the self float.
The second line, "mi mo ukinubeki," means "enough that I too might float."
The third line, "nezame kana," ends with the exclamatory "kana," a break after the third line. It recalls the "tears on waking" of 1355.
The fourth line, "hakanaki yume no," means "of a fleeting dream," taking up the dream sequence of the preceding poems.
The last line, "nagori bakari ni," means "all because of the lingering trace." Inverted from the third line, it shows afterward that the cause of the tears is merely the trace of a dream, setting that slightness against the abundance of tears.
- Author
- Jakuren
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Kaku bakari nede akashitsuru haru no yo ni ikani mietsuru yume ni ka aruran
- Next Poem
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Au to mite koto zo tomo naku akenu nari hakana no yume no wasuregatami ya