Kono tabi wa sakizaki miken yume yori mo samezu ya mono wa kanashikaruran

このたびは先々見けん夢よりも
覚めずや物は悲しかるらん

Roma-ji: Kono tabi wa sakizaki miken yume yori mo samezu ya mono wa kanashikaruran
English Translation: This time, more than all
the dreams you must have dreamt
in the days before,
does it not end in waking,
and is it not sadder still?
Meaning: This time, more than the dreams you must have seen before, does it go on without waking, and feel all the sadder for it?
Commentary: Miscellaneous Poems 791

Headnote: "Hearing that someone who had lost a parent and a son-in-law he relied on, and was grieving, had soon after lost even a daughter, I sent condolences"
Someone had lost a parent and a son-in-law on whom he relied, and then soon afterward lost even his daughter; hearing of it, the poet sent this condolence. The earlier misfortunes were like dreams, yet does this sorrow not go on without waking, sadder than those dreams, he asks, feeling for the other's mounting grief.

First line, “kono tabi wa”: this time, the daughter's death.
Second line, “sakizaki miken”: which you must have seen before; ken is conjecture about the past.
Third line, “yume yori mo”: more than the dreams, the deaths of parent and son-in-law likened to fleeting dreams.
Fourth line, “samezu ya mono wa”: the question particle ya is answered by ran in the fifth line.
Fifth line, “kanashikaruran”: ran is conjecture about the present, is it sadder still?
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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