Funaji ni wa kusa no makura mo musubaneba oki nagara koso yume mo miekere - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

船路には草の枕も結ばねば
おきながらこそ夢も見えけれ

Roma-ji: Funaji ni wa kusa no makura mo musubaneba oki nagara koso yume mo miekere
English Translation: On a voyage by ship
I do not bind a pillow
from the grasses, so
it is wide awake, at sea,
that my dreams appear to me.
Meaning: On a voyage by ship I cannot bind a pillow of grass, so it is while awake out on the open sea that I see my dreams.
Commentary: Book Six Parting Poems 349

Headnote: "On the way down to Tsukushi"
The poet says that on a sea voyage one does not bind grass for a pillow, so he dreams while awake out on the open sea. Bringing up the grass pillow of sleep on land journeys, he expresses through the play on "oki," the open sea and being awake, the forlornness of a voyage on which one cannot properly sleep. According to the headnote, it was composed on the way down to Tsukushi.
The author, written as Shigeyuki, is Minamoto no Shigeyuki. Of the Seiwa Genji, he traveled through the provinces holding successive provincial posts and is said to have died in Mutsu. He is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "funaji ni wa," means "on a voyage by ship." Against the overland journeys of the preceding poems, from here voyages by sea are sung of.
Second line, "kusa no makura mo," means "nor a pillow of grass." Taking up the grass-pillow poems from 344 in this book, it turns to a voyage on which no grass is bound.
Third line, "musubaneba," means "since I do not bind," with "ne" the perfective form of the negative auxiliary "zu."
Fourth line, "oki nagara koso," plays on "oki" as the open sea and as staying awake, strengthened by the particle "koso."
Final line, "yume mo miekere," means "dreams appear," with "koso" resolved by the perfective "kere." Through the contradiction of dreaming without sleeping, it conveys the heart on a voyage where the line between waking and dream grows dim.
Author: Minamoto no Shigeyuki
Source: Shui Wakashu
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