Todome aezu mube mo toshi to wa iwarekeri shika mo tsurenaku suguru yowai ka - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

とどめあへずむべもとしとは言はれけり
しかもつれなく過ぐる齢か

Roma-ji: Todome aezu mube mo toshi to wa iwarekeri shika mo tsurenaku suguru yowai ka
English Translation: Past all holding back—
no wonder they are called "years,"
the swift ones, fleet:
so unfeeling in their haste,
the ages of a life slip by.
Meaning: They cannot be held back. No wonder they are called toshi, the swift ones: how coldly the years of my life slip by.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems I 898

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Facing years that cannot be held, the speaker realizes that toshi, year, is so called because it echoes toshi, swift. In the form of wordplay, the poem laments the pitiless speed of time. The author is unknown.

First line "todome aezu" means unable to hold back; the line is hypermetric. After "tori mo aezu" in poem 896 of this book and "toritomuru" in the preceding poem, 897, the lament over time that cannot be held runs through three poems.
Second line "mube mo toshi to wa": toshi is a pivot word joining "year" and "swift"; mube means "indeed."
Third line "iwarekeri" asserts with the exclamatory keri, and the poem pauses here.
Fourth line "shika mo tsurenaku" means so coldly, so indifferently, personifying one's age.
Fifth line "suguru yowai ka" closes with the exclamatory ka, lamenting the age that passes without pity.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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