Yume no goto hakanaki mono wa nakarikeri nani tote hito ni au to mitsuran - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

夢のごとはかなきものはなかりけり
何とて人に逢ふと見つらん

Roma-ji: Yume no goto hakanaki mono wa nakarikeri nani tote hito ni au to mitsuran
English Translation: There is nothing at all
so fleeting as a dream,
I have come to know—
why then did I dream
that I had met with her
Meaning: There is nothing as fleeting as a dream, I now know. Why, then, did I dream that I had met her?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems III 765

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
The poet says there is nothing as fleeting as a dream, and wonders why he dreamed of meeting her. He voices how the joy of meeting in a dream vanishes on waking and leaves only a deeper emptiness.
In this book, from this poem through 767, poems on dream and waking follow one another.
The poet, Minamoto no Tanomu, lived in the mid-Heian period, and little is known of his career.

The first line, "Yume no goto," means "like a dream."
The second line, "hakanaki mono wa," means "anything fleeting."
The third line, "nakarikeri," means "there is none," and the poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "nani tote hito ni," means "why, with her."
The last line, "au to mitsuran," means "did I dream I met," with "ran" conjecturing a cause. Along with "au koto o" in the third line of the next poem, 766, it sings of meeting in dreams.
Author: Minamoto no Tanomu
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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