Sakasama ni toshi mo yukanamu tori mo aezu suguru yowai ya tomo ni kaeru to - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

さかさまに年もゆかなむ取りもあへず
過ぐる齢やともに帰ると

Roma-ji: Sakasama ni toshi mo yukanamu tori mo aezu suguru yowai ya tomo ni kaeru to
English Translation: Backward, I pray,
let the years go on their way,
so that my age,
passing ere I can grasp it,
might return along with them.
Meaning: I wish the years would run backward, in hope that the age that slips past before I can grasp it might come back along with them.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems I 896

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The speaker wishes the years would run in reverse, so that the age that passed before he could hold it might return as well. Voicing an impossible wish expresses a poignant longing for lost youth. The author is unknown.

First line "sakasama ni" shows the bold wish to reverse the flow of time.
Second line "toshi mo yukanamu": namu is a final particle of wishing, "may the years too go on"; the poem pauses here.
Third line "tori mo aezu" means before one can catch hold. With "toritomuru" in the next poem, 897, and "todome aezu" in 898, words lamenting time that cannot be held continue across three poems.
Fourth line "suguru yowai ya" is the passing age, with ya expressing a question.
Fifth line "tomo ni kaeru to" is an inverted form with something like "thinking" omitted, giving the reason for the wish: that one's age might return along with the years.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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