取りとむるものにしあらねば年月を
あはれあな憂と過ぐしつるかな
あはれあな憂と過ぐしつるかな
- Roma-ji
-
Toritomuru mono ni shi araneba toshitsuki o aware ana u to sugushitsuru kana
- English Translation
-
Since they are not things
that one can seize and hold back,
the months and years
with "Alas! How sad, how sad!"
I have let slip away.
- Meaning
- Since they are not things one can seize and hold, I have let the months and years pass, sighing, "Alas, how wretched."
- Commentary
-
Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems I 897
Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Because months and years cannot be seized and held, the speaker has only passed them in lament. A sense of helplessness before the flow of time, and regret for days that allowed nothing but sighing, seep through. The author is unknown.
First line "toritomuru" means to seize and hold back. It takes up "tori mo aezu" of the preceding poem, 896, continuing the lament that time cannot be held.
Second line "mono ni shi araneba": shi is emphatic, "since it is not such a thing."
Third line "toshitsuki o" points to the long time spent.
Fourth line "aware ana u to" layers the interjections aware and ana, taking the voice of lament directly into the poem.
Fifth line "sugushitsuru kana" joins the attributive of the perfective tsu and the exclamatory kana: "how I have let them pass."
- Author
- Unknown Poet
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Sakasama ni toshi mo yukanamu tori mo aezu suguru yowai ya tomo ni kaeru to
- Next Poem
-
Todome aezu mube mo toshi to wa iwarekeri shika mo tsurenaku suguru yowai ka