Kono tsuki no toshi no amari ni tarazaraba uguisu wa haya naki zo shinamashi - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

この月の年のあまりに足らざらば
鶯ははや鳴きぞしなまし

Roma-ji: Kono tsuki no toshi no amari ni tarazaraba uguisu wa haya naki zo shinamashi
English Translation: If this month
were not counted as the surplus
of the year,
the warbler would already
have begun to sing by now
Meaning: If this month had not been counted as the year's extra month, the warbler would already be singing.
Commentary: Book Eight Winter Poems 504

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
The poet says that if this month had not been counted as the year's extra month, the warbler would already be singing. Regretting that spring's arrival is delayed by an intercalary month, the year's surplus, the poem entrusts its feeling to the warbler, herald of spring, that has not yet sung.
Placed among poems awaiting spring at the year's end, it laments that spring has been pushed back by the workings of the calendar.
The poet is listed as "anonymous," and the composer's name has not come down to us.

The first line, "Kono tsuki no," means "this month," pointing to a month at the end of the year.
In the second line, "toshi no amari" is understood as the year's surplus month, an intercalary month.
The third line, "tarazaraba," means "if it had not been counted," setting a counterfactual condition.
The fourth line, "uguisu wa haya," means "the warbler already," the warbler being the bird that heralds spring.
In the last line, "mashi" is a counterfactual auxiliary forming a kakarimusubi pattern with the particle "zo": "it would have sung."
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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