Omoiki ya yume o kono yo no chigiri nite samuru wakare o nagekubeshi to wa - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

思ひきや夢をこの世の契りにて
覚むる別れを嘆くべしとは

Roma-ji: Omoiki ya yume o kono yo no chigiri nite samuru wakare o nagekubeshi to wa
English Translation: Who could have thought it?
That a dream would come to be
our bond in this world,
and that I should have to mourn
the parting when I wake?
Meaning: Who would have thought it, that a dream would be our only bond in this life, and that I would have to grieve the parting every time I woke?
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 756

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
Did I ever think, he says, that a dream would be our bond in this world and that I would grieve at the parting of waking? Unable to meet her in reality, he finds that only meetings in dreams are their bond in this life, and he must lament the parting each time he wakes, grieving at a fate in love he never foresaw.
The author, "the monk Shun'e," was the son of Minamoto no Toshiyori. A monk of Tōdai-ji, he named his own quarters in Shirakawa the Karin'en and gathered poets there for poetry meetings. He was the poetry teacher of Kamo no Chōmei and has a poem in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
Poem 779, which closes this book, opens with the same first line, "omoiki ya." Poem 720 also sings of meeting in a dream and of the reality one wakes to, echoing this poem in its treatment of dream and waking.

First line, "omoiki ya": "ki" is the past auxiliary and "ya" rhetorical, "did I ever think? Never." The poem pauses here and stands in inverted order with the last line. Poem 779 of this book opens with the same line.
Second line, "yume o kono yo no": "a dream, as this world's."
Third line, "chigiri nite": "chigiri" is the bond between lovers, "as our only bond in this life."
Fourth line, "samuru wakare o": "the parting when I wake." Like "samuru utsutsu mo" in the fourth line of 720, it sings of waking from a dream.
Fifth line, "nagekubeshi to wa": "beshi" is the auxiliary of necessity, "that I should have to grieve," returning to "omoiki ya" in the first line.
Author: Shun'e
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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