Sugata koso nezame no toko ni miezu tomo chigirishi koto no utsutsu nariseba - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

姿こそ寝覚めの床に見えずとも
契りしことの現なりせば

Roma-ji: Sugata koso nezame no toko ni miezu tomo chigirishi koto no utsutsu nariseba
English Translation: Even if her form
on the bed where I awake
is not there to see,
the pledge we made in dreams—
if only it were real
Meaning: Even if her form is nowhere to be seen on the bed where I awake, if only the pledge we made in the dream were real.
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems III 810

Headnote: "Composed on the topic 'Love pledged in a dream'"
Composed on the topic "love pledged in a dream." Even if her form is not to be seen on the bed when I wake, he says, if only what we pledged were real. When he wakes from the dream the beloved vanishes, but that he can bear; he wishes only that the promise they exchanged in the dream might be true, a fragile hope.
The author, "Imperial Adviser Toshinori," was the son of Fujiwara no Michinori, who took the tonsure under the name Shinzei. He rose to Imperial Adviser but was exiled after his father Shinzei was killed in the Heiji Disturbance.
Poem 835 of this book was also composed on the topic "love pledged in a dream" and answers this poem in wishing that the pledge of a dream might become real.

First line, "sugata koso": "koso" is emphatic and flows on into "miezu tomo," "even if her form," carrying an adversative sense.
Second line, "nezame no toko ni": "nezame" is waking from sleep, "on the bed where I wake from the dream."
Third line, "miezu tomo": "tomo" is a concessive particle, "even if it is not seen."
Fourth line, "chigirishi koto no": "what we pledged" in the dream, giving the "pledged in a dream" of the topic. Like "kyō to tanomeshi" in the fourth line of 835 of this book, it speaks of a dream's promise.
Fifth line, "utsutsu nariseba": "se" is the irrealis form of the past "ki" and "ba" conditional, "if only it were real." A counterfactual with "how glad I would be" left unsaid, it leaves a lingering feeling.
Author: Fujiwara no Toshinori
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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