Wasurenan ima wa towaji to omoitsutsu nuru yo shimo koso yume ni miekere - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

忘れなん今は問はじと思ひつつ
寝る夜しもこそ夢に見えけれ

Roma-ji: Wasurenan ima wa towaji to omoitsutsu nuru yo shimo koso yume ni miekere
English Translation: I will forget you,
now I will not visit you,
so I think, and yet
just on those nights that I sleep
you come to me in my dreams.
Meaning: On the very nights I go to sleep thinking, "I will forget you, I will not visit you anymore," you appear to me in my dreams.
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems III 800

Headnote: "Sent to a woman who had said, "Now I will not ask after you""
The poem says that it is precisely on nights one goes to sleep thinking, "I will forget her and no longer visit," that she appears in one's dreams. The headnote shows it was sent to a woman who had said she would no longer ask after him. Taking her words "ima wa towaji" directly into the poem, it protests that the longing cannot be cut off, so that she appears in dreams even when one tries to forget.

First line, "wasurenan," means "I will forget," with "nan" expressing emphasis and intention.
Second line, "ima wa towaji to," means "that now I will not visit," using the woman's words from the headnote as they are.
Third line, "omoitsutsu," means "while thinking so."
Fourth line, "nuru yo shimo koso," means "on just those nights I sleep," with "shimo" emphatic and "koso" a binding particle.
Final line, "yume ni miekere," means "you appear in my dreams," concluding in the perfective form "kere" in answer to "koso." Dream poems follow from here, with 808 and 809 also singing of seeing in dreams.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shui Wakashu
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