Kouredomo au yo no naki wa wasuregusa yumeji ni sae ya oishigeruramu - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

恋ふれども逢ふ夜のなきは忘れ草
夢路にさへや生ひ茂るらむ

Roma-ji: Kouredomo au yo no naki wa wasuregusa yumeji ni sae ya oishigeruramu
English Translation: Though I long for you,
there is no night that we meet;
has forgetting grass
grown so thick that it now chokes
even the pathway of dreams?
Meaning: Though I long for you, there is no night on which we meet. Has the forgetting grass grown so thick that it covers even the path we walk in dreams?
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 766

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
The poem imagines that the reason the lovers cannot meet even in dreams is that forgetting grass has grown thick over the dream path. In the preceding poem the speaker sought the grass, but here it stands for the lover's forgetting, so the two poems reverse the roles of the one who forgets and the one forgotten.

In the first line domo is concessive: "though I long."
The second line speaks of there being no night to meet, not only in reality but also in dreams.
The third line names the same forgetting grass as the first line of the preceding poem, here a sign that the lover has forgotten.
The fourth line names the dream path to one's lover, and sae means "even" the dream path. Ya asks a question resolved in the last line.
In the last line ramu asks the cause: has the grass grown thick? The fantasy of grass blocking the dream path closes the poem.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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