Wasurarete shibashi madoromu hodo mo gana itsuka wa kimi o yume narade min - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

忘られてしばしまどろむほどもがな
いつかは君を夢ならで見ん

Roma-ji: Wasurarete shibashi madoromu hodo mo gana itsuka wa kimi o yume narade min
English Translation: If I could forget,
and just for a little while
doze off into sleep!
When, if not in dreams, could I
ever look on you again?
Meaning: If only I could forget for a while and doze off a little! When could I ever see you again, if not in a dream?
Commentary: Book Twenty Lament Poems 1312

Headnote: "After losing her daughter"
The poet wishes she could forget and doze a little, for when could she see her daughter except in a dream? The headnote shows it was composed after losing her daughter. Grief keeps her from sleeping, yet if she could only doze she might meet her daughter in a dream, and so she conveys her love for a daughter she can now meet only in dreams.
The author, Nakatsukasa, was a daughter of Prince Atsuyoshi, son of Emperor Uda, and Ise. She is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "wasurarete," means "forgetting of itself," with "re" the continuative form of the spontaneous auxiliary "ru."
Second line, "shibashi madoromu," means "to doze a little while."
Third line, "hodo mo gana," means "if only there were a time," with "mogana" a final particle of wishing. The poem breaks after this third line.
Fourth line, "itsuka wa kimi o," means "when ever could I see you," with "ka wa" a rhetorical question.
Final line, "yume narade min," means "see you if not in a dream," speaking of meeting her now only in dreams. It shares meeting the dead in a dream with the third line of 1302 in this book, "yume ni mite."
Author: Nakatsukasa
Source: Shui Wakashu
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