Tamasaka ni au yo wa yume no kokochi shite koishi mo nado ka utsutsu naruramu - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

たまさかに逢ふ夜は夢の心地して
恋しもなどかうつつなるらむ

Roma-ji: Tamasaka ni au yo wa yume no kokochi shite koishi mo nado ka utsutsu naruramu
English Translation: On the rare nights
that we meet, it all seems
like a dream to me,
so why is it that longing
alone is all too real
Meaning: The rare nights we meet feel like a dream, so why is it that only my longing is so real?
Commentary: Book Eight Love Poems II 459

The rare nights of meeting feel as fleeting as a dream, the poet says, so why is the pain of longing so real? Setting dream against reality, the poem conveys the fleetingness of meeting and the certainty of love's suffering.
Poem 462 in this book also begins with tamasaka ni, now and then, and sings of a love that visits only rarely. It also shares a mood with poem 441 in this book, which sings of a later pain outweighing the joy of the night of meeting.

First line, 'tamasaka ni', means now and then, rarely. Poem 462 in this book begins with the same line.
Second line, 'au yo wa yume no', means the nights we meet, of a dream.
Third line, 'kokochi shite', means feel like, leading with a concessive turn into the lower verse.
Fourth line, 'koishi mo nado ka', means why is the longing, the questioning nado followed by the particle ka, answered by ramu in the final line.
Final line, 'utsutsu naruramu', means is it real, closing with the attributive of the conjectural ramu in answer to ka in the fourth line. It pairs with the dream of the second line.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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