Utatane ni koishiki hito o miteshi yori yume chō mono wa tanomisometeki - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

うたた寝に恋しき人を見てしより
夢てふものは頼みそめてき

Roma-ji: Utatane ni koishiki hito o miteshi yori yume chō mono wa tanomisometeki
English Translation: Ever since I saw
the one I love in a dream
while dozing lightly,
those things that we call dreams
I have come to rely on.
Meaning: Ever since I saw the one I long for in a dream while dozing, I have begun to place my hopes in dreams.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 553

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Having met her beloved in a dream while dozing, the poet says she has come to rely on dreams, which ought to be fleeting. The pain of a love that cannot be fulfilled in waking life is expressed plainly as a heart with nothing but dreams to cling to. Where the previous poem registers the surprise of meeting in a dream, this one shows the change of heart that comes to depend on dreams; it is the second of Komachi's sequence of dream poems.
Ono no Komachi was a poet of the early Heian period, counted among the Six Poetic Immortals and the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals. She is said to have served at court around the reign of Emperor Ninmyō, but much about her origins and life is uncertain.
The main text of the last line writes this word with the character for "think" (omoi), which does not agree with the reading line "tanomisometeki." Since the former cannot be read as a word, the reading line is followed here and the word is given as tanomi.

First line, "utatane ni": utatane is dozing off without going to bed. Whereas the previous poem, 552, sings of sleep while longing for the beloved, this one sings of an unexpected doze, and the two kinds of sleep form a pair.
Second line, "koishiki hito o": the beloved is someone the poet cannot meet in waking life.
Third line, "miteshi yori": te marks completion, shi is the attributive of the past auxiliary ki, and yori marks a starting point: "ever since I saw him in a dream."
Fourth line, "yume chō mono wa": chō is a contraction of to iu. The particle wa singles out dreams, showing the paradox of relying on the very emblem of transience.
Fifth line, "tanomisometeki": tanomu means to rely on, somu means to begin to do something, and teki combines completion and past, closing as if confirming that she has begun to rely on dreams.
Author: Ono no Komachi
Source: Kokin Wakashu
Prev Poem: Omoitsutsu nureba ya hito no mietsuramu yume to shiriseba samezaramashi o
Next Poem: Ito semete koishiki toki wa mubatama no yoru no koromo o kaeshite zo kiru