うつつにも今も見てしか夢のみに
手本まき寝と見るは苦しも
手本まき寝と見るは苦しも
- Roma-ji
-
Utsutsu ni mo ima mo miteshika ime nomi ni tamoto makinu to miru wa kurushi mo
- English Translation
-
In waking life too,
oh, to see you even now;
only in my dreams
to lie upon your sleeve
is a painful thing to see
- Meaning
- I long to see you in waking life, right now; it is painful to see us sleeping on each other's sleeves only in my dreams.
- Commentary
-
Book Twelve Expressing Thoughts Directly 2880
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Thoughts Directly"
The poet wishes to meet the beloved in reality right now, finding it painful to see their nights together only in dreams. It speaks of how a dream meeting only sharpens the absence in waking life. A variant text gives the first line as "wagimoko o," "my darling."
The poet is unknown. Book Twelve, titled the second part of "Love Poems Exchanged Old and New," gathers love poems by people whose names have not come down to us, arranged by category.
Line one, "utsutsu ni mo," means "in reality too," and pairs with "ime," dream, in line three.
Line two, "ima mo miteshika": "teshika" expresses a wish, "I want to see you even now." The poem pauses here.
Line three, "ime nomi ni," means "only in dreams."
Line four, "tamoto makinu to," means "that we sleep pillowed on each other's sleeves."
Line five, "miru wa kurushi mo," means "it is painful to see," with "mo" exclamatory.
- Author
- Unknown
- Source
- Manyoshu
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