Yume ka to yo mishi omokage mo chigirishi mo wasurezu nagara utsutsu naraneba - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

夢かとよ見し面影も契りしも
忘れずながらうつつならねば

Roma-ji: Yume ka to yo mishi omokage mo chigirishi mo wasurezu nagara utsutsu naraneba
English Translation: Was it but a dream?
The face I saw, the vows we made,
all of this I keep,
never once have I forgotten—
yet it will not seem real
Meaning: Was it a dream? I have not forgotten the face I saw or the vows we made, yet none of it seems real.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 1391

Headnote: "On the theme of love after meeting and then not meeting, at a poetry contest of the Bureau of Poetry."
This is the second poem of the sequence recalling a past love. Though the speaker has not forgotten the face she saw or the vows exchanged, none of it seems real, and she asks whether it was a dream. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic of love after meeting and then not meeting, at a poetry contest held at the Bureau of Poetry.
The author, "Daughter of Master of the Empress Dowager's Household Shunzei," was a granddaughter of Fujiwara no Shunzei who became his adopted daughter. She married Minamoto no Michitomo and served Retired Emperor Go-Toba.
The Bureau of Poetry was the office Retired Emperor Go-Toba set up in Kennin 1 (1201) for compiling the Shin Kokinshū. Love after meeting and then not meeting is a topic for a love that could not continue after a first meeting.

The first line, "yume ka to yo," means "was it a dream?" and the poem breaks after it. "To yo" expresses self-questioning. It takes up the dream sequence of the preceding poems.
The second line, "mishi omokage mo," means "the face I saw when we met." It takes up "omokage zo tatsu" of the preceding poem.
The third line, "chigirishi mo," means "and the vows we made."
The fourth line, "wasurezu nagara," means "though I do not forget."
The last line, "utsutsu naraneba," means "since it is not real." Inverted from the first line, it gives afterward the reason for thinking it a dream. Where the preceding poem sang of a vivid image, this one sings of how that very image loses its reality, expressing the spirit of the topic.
Author: The Daughter of Fujiwara no Shunzei
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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