Utatane ni hakanaku sameshi yume o dani kono yo ni mata wa mide ya yaminan - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

うたた寝にはかなく覚めし夢をだに
この世にまたは見でや止みなん

Roma-ji: Utatane ni hakanaku sameshi yume o dani kono yo ni mata wa mide ya yaminan
English Translation: Even that dream from
which I woke so fleetingly
in a passing doze:
must I end without seeing
it again in this world of ours?
Meaning: Even that dream from which I woke so fleetingly in a passing doze: must it all end without my ever seeing it again in this world?
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 904

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Even the dream from which I woke so fleetingly in a doze, she says, must I end without seeing it again in this world? The dream in which she met her beloved during a passing doze was brief and quickly broken, yet she laments that she may leave this world without ever seeing even that fleeting dream again. It is a poem of despair in a love where not only real meetings but even meetings in dreams are denied.
The author, "Sagami," was the daughter, or by some accounts the adopted daughter, of Minamoto no Yorimitsu. She took the name from her marriage to Ōe no Kinsuke, Governor of Sagami, and later served Princess Shūshi, daughter of Emperor Ichijō. A poem of hers is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
This poem opens the fifth book of love. The last poem of the book, 958, by Izumi Shikibu, "naki ni nashite mo towanu kimi kana," reproaches a lover who never comes. Where the opening poem laments that there is no meeting even in dreams, the closing poem laments that in waking life too he does not come, so that the beginning and end of the final book of love answer each other in the grief of a love that cannot meet. Poems 925 and 951 of this book also speak of "this world."

First line, "utatane ni": "utatane" is dozing off without meaning to, before going to bed. The opening recalls Ono no Komachi's Kokinshū poem "utatane ni koishiki hito o miteshi yori yume chō mono wa tanomisometeki."
Second line, "hakanaku sameshi": "shi" is the attributive of the past "ki," "from which I woke so fleetingly."
Third line, "yume o dani": "dani" names a lesser thing to imply a greater, "even a dream." If not even a dream can be seen, a real meeting is all the further out of reach.
Fourth line, "kono yo ni mata wa": "again in this world," marking the limit of her lifetime. It shares "kono yo" with "kono yo bakari to" in the fourth line of 925 and "kono yo ni hito o" in the fourth line of 951 of this book.
Fifth line, "mide ya yaminan": "de" is a negative conjunctive particle, "without seeing." "Ya" is an interrogative binding particle, and "nan" is the irrealis of the perfective "nu" with the attributive of the conjectural "mu," "will it end without my seeing it?"
Author: Sagami
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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