Yukusue wa ware o mo shinobu hito ya aramu mukashi o omou kokoronarai ni - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

行く末は我をも偲ぶ人やあらむ
昔を思ふ心ならひに

Roma-ji: Yukusue wa ware o mo shinobu hito ya aramu mukashi o omou kokoronarai ni
English Translation: In the days to come,
will there be someone who thinks
fondly of me too,
in the way that hearts are wont
to long for times gone by?
Meaning: In the days to come, will there be someone who remembers me too, as it is the way of the heart to long for the past?
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1845

Headnote: "On reading poems of people of old when compiling the Senzaishū."
This is the fourth of the poems on past and present. In the days to come, will someone remember him, as by the same habit of the heart he now remembers people of old? According to the headnote, it was composed on reading the poems of people of old while compiling the Senzai Wakashū. Turning his heart to the poems of the past as compiler, he thinks that he too will one day be among those remembered.
The author, "Kōtaigōgū no Daibu Shunzei," is Fujiwara no Shunzei. A son of Fujiwara no Toshitada, he compiled the Senzai Wakashū. He was the father of Fujiwara no Teika.

The first line, "yukusue wa," means "in the future, in later ages," taking up "the latter days" of the preceding poem.
The second line, "ware o mo shinobu," means "remembering me too." "Mo" carries the sense "just as with people of old."
The third line, "hito ya aramu," means "will there be someone?" "Ya" is a particle of question closed in kakari-musubi by the attributive form of the conjectural "mu." It has six syllables, one over the norm, and the poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "mukashi o omou," means "thinking of those of old," his own heart as he reads old poems for the anthology.
The last line, "kokoronarai ni," means "by the habit of the heart." Through inversion it shows that the heart that remembers is handed down across time, closing the poems on past and present.
Author: Fujiwara no Shunzei
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
Prev Poem: Sue no yo mo kono nasake nomi kawarazu to mishi yume naku wa yoso ni kikamashi
Next Poem: Yo no naka o omoitsuranete nagamureba munashiki sora ni kiyuru shirakumo