Nenu yume ni mukashi no kabe o mitsuru yori utsutsu ni mono zo kanashikarikeru - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

寝ぬ夢に昔の壁を見つるより
うつつにものぞ悲しかりける

Roma-ji: Nenu yume ni mukashi no kabe o mitsuru yori utsutsu ni mono zo kanashikarikeru
English Translation: Since I saw the wall
of bygone days, as in a dream
dreamed without sleep,
in the waking world all things
have come to seem so sad
Meaning: Ever since I saw that wall from the past, as if in a dream dreamed without sleeping, everything in the waking world has seemed so sad.
Commentary: Book Twenty Congratulatory Poems 1399

Headnote: "After his wife died, seeing writing she had left on the wall of the place where they lived, from when she was alive."
The poet says that since seeing the old wall as in a sleepless dream, all things in the waking world are sad. Seeing the writing his late wife left on the wall while alive, he feels as if dreaming, and yet its being real deepens his sorrow.
According to the headnote, after his wife died he saw on the wall of their home the writing she had left there while she lived, and composed this.
The poet, "Lord Kanesuke," is Fujiwara no Kanesuke. A son of Fujiwara no Toshimoto, he rose to Middle Counselor. Called the Tsutsumi Middle Counselor for his mansion on the banks of the Kamo River, he is counted among the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals. He was the great-grandfather of Murasaki Shikibu, and the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu includes his poem "Mikanohara wakite nagaruru Izumigawa."

The first line, "Nenu yume ni," means "as in a dream without sleep," the feeling of seeing his late wife's hand.
The second line, "mukashi no kabe o," means "the wall of the past," bearing her writing from when she lived.
The third line, "mitsuru yori," means "ever since I saw it."
The fourth line, "utsutsu ni mono zo," means "in the waking world, all things," set against "dream" in the first line; "zo" is an emphatic binding particle.
The last line, "kanashikarikeru," means "seem sad," closing the "zo" with the attributive "keru." Poem 1404 of this book also ends its lower verse with "mono zo kanashikarikeru."
Author: Fujiwara no Kanesuke
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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