What does 「夢{ゆめ}に触{ふ}れる」 mean?

Question

It's part of the lyrics of a song. The actual line is:

どれほど夢{ゆめ}に触{ふ}れている?

I checked the definitions of 触れる as an intransitive verb on Weblio and came to the conclusion that this is most likely the meaning here:

② 機会・物事に出合う。また、直接体験する。

So, would the translation be:

どれほど夢に触れている?
To what extent are you living (experiencing) your dream?

The song is called "Hunting For Your Dream", though, so it seems a bit strange that the person might already be living their dream to some extent.

I don't think the rest of the lyrics would be of any help, but here they are, in any case.

Answer 1

夢に触れる is not a common expression and it's almost impossible to determine the author's intended meaning without referring to the entire context. From the context, I think the line roughly means "To what extent are you conscious of your (own) dream", "How much are you thinking (or doing) to realize your dream", or something along these lines. Perhaps just thinking about your dream counts as 夢に触れる here.

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EDIT: Here are some examples where 触れる is used with intangible things.

• 多くのジャンルの音楽に触れる to experience many genres of music
• 戦争の話に触れる to listen to / read stories of war
• 心に触れる物語 heart-touching story
• 彼の考えに触れる to get to know about his opinion
• 記憶に触れる to observe one's memory (via a fictional machine)

It's hard to generalize, but I hope you can get the gist. So 夢に触れる might possibly mean "to hear about the dream (of someone else)", but in this context it's about thinking about someone's own dream.