For phrases modifying nouns, is the subject considered part of the modifier or separate?


Oftentimes I see phrases such as this in songs and such:

僕は迷い込んだ夢の中

I always interpreted these as the first part all modifying the noun, i.e.
"Inside the dream I was lost in," here. However, when I asked a question on
this particular song, a user translated this with the subject as separate from
the modifier, i.e."I'm within an astray dream." This came as a shock to be,
since I've always thought of lines like this the first way.

Are both interpretations correct, or is one of us wrong?

Thank you!




It's unnatural to put the 僕は into the could-be modifying clause, i.e "Inside
the dream I was lost in" (In that case, it's usually 僕が) unless the dream
world is shared with several people and you were lost there unlike others.

So, it's more natural to interpret it as 僕は 夢の中 迷い込んだ ("I wandered into a
dream" or "I'm lost (in a maze) in a dream") with the word order inverted or,
as someone said, 僕は（自分が）迷い込んだ夢 の中, though this is an unnaturally recursive
expression unless there's a particular reason to use.

That said, only the author can know how to interpret the lyrics.

