Madoromanu mono kara utate shikasuga ni utsutsu ni mo aranu kokochi nomi suru - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

まどろまぬものからうたてしかすがに
うつつにもあらぬ心地のみする

Roma-ji: Madoromanu mono kara utate shikasuga ni utsutsu ni mo aranu kokochi nomi suru
English Translation: Though I did not doze,
how strange it is, and yet still
I cannot help but feel
as though it were not waking,
not real in any way
Meaning: I did not drift off to sleep, and yet, strangely, I cannot shake the feeling that none of it was real.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems IV 877

Headnote: "When he had gone out in deep secrecy."
The poet says that though he did not doze, strangely, he can only feel that it was not real. After a secret tryst, he sings of the exhilaration and confusion of love, feeling as if in a dream though he was awake.
According to the headnote, the poem was composed when he went out in deep secrecy. The next poem, 878, is the reply, and the two form an exchange.
The poet is listed as anonymous, and the composer's name has not come down to us.

The first line, "Madoromanu," means "not dozing."
The second line, "mono kara utate," means "though, distressingly," with "mono kara" adversative and "utate" meaning "unpleasantly."
The third line, "shikasuga ni," means "even so."
The fourth line, "utsutsu ni mo aranu," means "not like waking life," a hypermetric line of eight syllables. The next poem, 878, takes up "utsutsu ni mo aranu" unchanged in its first two lines.
The last line, "kokochi nomi suru," means "is all I feel," with "nomi" limiting.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
Prev Poem: Omoiidete otozure shikeru yamabiko no kotae ni korinu kokoro nani nari
Next Poem: Utsutsu ni mo aranu kokoro wa yume nare ya mite mo hakanaki mono o omoeba