Omoiamari uchinuru yoi no maboroshi mo namiji o wakete yukikayoikeri - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

思ひあまりうち寝る宵の幻も
波路を分けて行き通ひけり

Roma-ji: Omoiamari uchinuru yoi no maboroshi mo namiji o wakete yukikayoikeri
English Translation: Overcome with love,
I drifted into sleep at dusk,
and even the phantom
of my dream, parting the waves,
went on its way to you and back
Meaning: Overcome with longing, I fell asleep at nightfall, and even the phantom in my dream, I found, was parting the waves of the sea road, going to you and back.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 936

Headnote: "Composed on the topic 'love separated by a sea road'"
Composed on the topic "love separated by a sea road." Overcome with longing, I fell asleep at nightfall, he says, and even the phantom went to and fro, parting the sea road. When he falls asleep overcome by longing for a lover far across the sea, the phantom that appears in his dream goes back and forth through the waves, and the poem expresses that the sea which cannot be crossed in waking life can be crossed in dreams by the strength of longing. It is a dreamlike poem that recalls how the Kiritsubo chapter of The Tale of Genji calls "maboroshi" the magician who sought the soul of Yang Guifei on an island of immortals in the sea.
The author, "Kamo no Chōmei," was the son of Kamo no Nagatsugu, a priest of the Lower Kamo Shrine. He studied poetry under Shun'e, later took the tonsure under the name Ren'in, lived in a ten-foot-square hut at Hino and wrote the Hōjōki. His poetic treatise is the Mumyōshō.
Poem 948 of this book is on the topic "love separated by a barrier road." Where this poem has a dream phantom travel to a lover beyond the sea, 948 laments crossing a barrier road, so that the separation by sea and the separation by barrier form a pair.

First line, "omoiamari": a line with an extra syllable, "overflowing with longing, unable to hold it back."
Second line, "uchinuru yoi no": "uchi" is a prefix, "of the evening when I dozed off."
Third line, "maboroshi mo": "maboroshi" is a fleeting figure appearing in a dream. It recalls how the Kiritsubo chapter of The Tale of Genji calls the magician who sought Yang Guifei's soul across the sea a "maboroshi." "Mo" implies "though I cannot go, at least the phantom."
Fourth line, "namiji o wakete": "namiji" is a road over the sea, a sea lane, taking up the "sea road" of the topic, "parting the waves." It pairs with "koyuru sekiji ni" in the second line of 948 of this book, both singing of a road that separates.
Fifth line, "yukikayoikeri": "keri" is an auxiliary of realization, "it was going to and fro."
Author: Kamo no Chomei
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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