Yume o nado yogoro tanomade sugikiken sarade au beki kimi naranaku ni

夢をなど夜ごろ頼まで過ぎ来けん
さらで逢ふべき君ならなくに

Roma-ji: Yume o nado yogoro tanomade sugikiken sarade au beki kimi naranaku ni
English Translation: Why did I not trust
in dreams these many nights, but
let them pass me by,
when you are not someone I
could meet in any other way?
Meaning: Why have I let so many nights go by without trusting in dreams, when you are someone I can meet in no other way?
Commentary: Love Poems 700

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Love"
The poet regrets that for so many nights he did not rely on meeting the beloved in dreams, though she is someone he can meet nowhere but in a dream. Realizing he cannot meet her in waking life, he resolves at least to rely on dreams, a mixture of resignation and longing.
Like the poems on meeting in a dream, 581 to 583 in this book, it sings of meeting in dreams, taking up the dream once again near the end of the love section.

First line, “yume o nado”: nado is why, answering ken in the third line.
Second line, “yogoro tanomade”: yogoro is many nights, and de a negative conjunctive particle: without relying on it.
Third line, “sugikiken”: ken is conjecture about a past cause: why did I let them pass? The poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, “sarade au beki”: sarade is otherwise, other than in dreams.
Fifth line, “kimi naranaku ni”: naku ni is though you are not, returning in inversion to the upper verse.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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