我が背子が袖返す夜の夢ならし
まことも君に逢ひたるごとし
まことも君に逢ひたるごとし
- Roma-ji
-
Waga seko ga sode kaesu yo no ime narashi makoto mo kimi ni aitaru gotoshi
- English Translation
-
It must have been
the dream of the night you turned
back your sleeves to sleep:
truly it was just as though
I had met with you, my love
- Meaning
- It must have been the dream of the night you turned back your sleeves; it was truly as though I had met you.
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2813
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Questions and Answers"
It must have been the dream of the night he turned back his sleeves, for in it she truly seemed to meet him: so a woman answers the question of the preceding poem. Rejoicing that his longing reached her as a dream, she tells him how real their meeting in the dream was.
As the left note "the two poems above" shows, this answering poem forms a pair with the preceding one. It takes up "sode kaeshishi" as "sode kaesu yo no" and answers the question "ime ni mieki ya" with "ime narashi," showing clearly the form of a question-and-answer poem that responds by drawing in the words of the question.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather the love poems of people whose names have not come down to us.
First line, "waga seko ga": "my dear one." "Seko" is a woman's affectionate word for her husband or lover, showing that this is a woman's poem.
Second line, "sode kaesu yo no": "of the night you turned back your sleeves." It takes up "sode kaeshishi wa" in the fourth line of the preceding poem.
Third line, "ime narashi": "it must have been a dream." "Narashi" is a contraction of "naru rashi," expressing a grounded supposition. A pause falls after the third line.
Fourth line, "makoto mo kimi ni": "truly, with you." "Makoto mo" means truly, really, expressing how vividly the meeting in the dream was felt.
Fifth line, "aitaru gotoshi": "it was as though I had met you." "Taru" is the attributive form of the perfective "tari" and "gotoshi" an auxiliary of likeness, expressing the feeling of having met in reality though it was a dream.
- Source
- Manyoshu
- Prev Poem
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Wagimoko ni koite subenami shirotae no sode kaeshishi wa ime ni mieki ya
- Next Poem
-
Aga koi wa nagusame kanetsu makenagaku ime ni miezute toshi no henureba