Hedateyuku yoyo no omokage kakikurashi yuki to furinuru toshi no kure kana

English Translation

Ever more remote,
the faces of the years gone by
are darkened and blurred,
falling and aging like the snow
at the ending of the year

Meaning

The faces of bygone years grow ever more distant, blurred and darkened, and like the snow they have fallen and grown old—so ends the year.

Commentary

Book Six Winter Poems 693

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed at the end of the year."
This is the third poem of the year's-end sequence. It sings of a year's end when the faces of years gone by, ever more distant, are darkened and blurred and have fallen and aged like the snow. The headnote continues from the preceding poem, and this poem too was composed at the end of the year.
The author, "Daughter of Toshinari, Master of the Empress Dowager's Household," is Shunzei's Daughter. A granddaughter of Fujiwara no Shunzei, she was adopted as his daughter. She became the wife of Minamoto no Michitomo and was active in Retired Emperor Go-Toba's poetic circle.
The scene is the end of the year as snow falls, and no place is specified.
The direct occasion is composing on the arrival of the year's end.

The first line, "hedateyuku," means "growing ever more distant with each year."
The second line, "yoyo no omokage," refers to the images of people and events seen over the many years gone by.
The third line, "kakikurashi," means "darkening them from sight," with "kaki" as an intensifying prefix. The images are darkened by tears and by the falling snow.
In the fourth line, "yuki to furinuru," "furi" carries both snow "falling" and "growing old" with the years: "have fallen and aged like the snow."
The last line, "toshi no kure kana," closes with the exclamatory particle "kana." The poem lays the distance of time over a snowy scene: the images of years gone by recede as if darkened by falling snow and grow old as snow piles up. Where the preceding poem used reasoning to sing of longing for the departing year, this poem entrusts the images of past years to a snowy scene. Like 676 in this book, which used the double meaning of "furinu" to overlay snow and old age, it uses the double meaning of "furu" to overlay snow and the passing of time.

Author

Shunzei's Daughter

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other