Ime nomi ni mite sura kokoda kouru a wa utsutsu ni miteba mashite ika ni aramu

夢のみに見てすらここだ恋ふる我は
うつつに見てばましていかにあらむ

Roma-ji: Ime nomi ni mite sura kokoda kouru a wa utsutsu ni miteba mashite ika ni aramu
English Translation: Only in my dreams
have I seen you, yet so much
I long for you now,
if I saw you in waking life,
how much more then would it be
Meaning: Even seeing you only in my dreams, I long for you this much. If I were to see you in waking life, how much more would it be?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2553

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing One's Feelings Directly"
Even seeing the beloved only in dreams brings this much longing, so how great would the feeling become upon meeting in reality? Contrasting dream and waking life, the poem imagines both the hope of a meeting not yet realized and the intensity of feeling it would bring.
The contrast of dream and reality also appears in poem 2544 of this book, "utsutsu ni wa au yoshi mo nashi ime ni dani." Whereas poem 2544 wishes at least to meet in dreams because meeting in reality is impossible, this poem reasons that if even dreams bring such longing, reality would bring far more, treating the same theme of dream and waking from the opposite direction.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather love poems by people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "ime nomi ni": "only in dreams." In ancient Japanese "dream" was read "ime," and "nomi" shows that the lovers have not met in reality.
Second line, "mite sura kokoda": "even seeing, this much." The particle "sura" cites a lesser case to suggest a greater one, and "kokoda" means "so very much."
Third line, "kouru a wa": "I, who long." The particle "wa" sets the speaker as the topic.
Fourth line, "utsutsu ni miteba": "if I saw you in reality." The form "te" of the perfective auxiliary "tsu" with "ba" expresses a hypothetical condition, set against "dream" in the first line.
Fifth line, "mashite ika ni aramu": "how much more would it be." With nine syllables it exceeds the norm, and the conjectural "mu" conveys the swelling of feeling as if overflowing.
Source: Manyoshu
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