夢にのみ昔の人をあひ見れば
覚むるほどこそ別れなりけれ
覚むるほどこそ別れなりけれ
- Roma-ji
-
Yume ni nomi mukashi no hito o aimireba samuru hodo koso wakare narikere
- English Translation
-
Only in my dreams
do I meet the one of old,
and so it must be
that the moment I awake
is when we part from each other
- Meaning
- Since I meet the one long gone only in my dreams, the moment of waking is itself our parting.
- Commentary
-
Book Ten Miscellaneous Poems II 618
Since the poet can meet the departed only in dreams, the moment of waking from the dream is itself the parting. The poem concisely conveys the sorrow of meeting in dreams and parting again on every waking.
In 616 in this book the dream also stands for a death, and this poem sees the departed in a dream. Waking from a dream is also sung of in 630 in this book.
The author, Eien, was a son of Fujiwara no Nagasuke, Senior Assistant Minister of the Treasury, and as a monk of Kōfukuji rose to Provisional Archbishop. Famed for his poem on the cuckoo, he was called the Archbishop of the First Song.
First line, 'yume ni nomi', means only in dreams, the particle nomi showing that they cannot meet in waking life.
Second line, 'mukashi no hito o', means the one of old, now departed.
Third line, 'aimireba', means since I meet, the realis followed by ba expressing a settled reason.
Fourth line, 'samuru hodo koso', means the very moment of waking, the particle koso reaching to the final line. It echoes yume samete in the third line of 630 in this book.
Final line, 'wakare narikere', means is our parting, the particle koso answered by kere, the realis of the exclamatory keri.
- Author
- Yoen
- Source
- Kinyo Wakashu
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