Mi o tsumeba aware to zo omou hatsuyuki no furinuru koto mo tare ni iwamashi - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

身をつめばあはれとぞ思ふ初雪の
ふりぬることも誰に言はまし

Roma-ji: Mi o tsumeba aware to zo omou hatsuyuki no furinuru koto mo tare ni iwamashi
English Translation: Pinching my own flesh
I feel how sad it is—
that the first snow
has fallen, that I have aged,
to whom am I to tell it
Meaning: When I pinch myself and think on it, how sad it seems: to whom am I to tell that the first snow has fallen, and that I too have grown old?
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems VI 1068

Headnote: "Sent on a morning around the Tenth Month when a little snow had fallen, after he had long stopped visiting."
The poet says that, measuring it against herself, she feels the sadness of it, and asks to whom she can tell that the first snow has fallen and that she has grown old. Overlaying the falling of the first snow with her own aging now that no one visits, she voices the loneliness of having no one to speak to.
According to the headnote, she sent it on a morning around the Tenth Month when a little snow had fallen, after he had long stopped visiting. From this poem to the end of the book, poems on snow and winter follow, and at the close of the book the season moves from winter to the end of the year.
The poet, Ukon, was a daughter of Fujiwara no Suenawa and a lady-in-waiting to Empress Onshi, consort of Emperor Daigo. Her "wasuraruru mi o ba omowazu chikaiteshi" is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.

The first line, "Mi o tsumeba," means "when I pinch my own flesh," meaning to judge another's pain by one's own.
The second line, "aware to zo omou," means "I feel it deeply sad," closing the binding particle "zo" with the attributive "omou." The poem pauses here.
The third line, "hatsuyuki no," means "of the first snow," taking up the snow of the Tenth Month in the headnote. 1070 through 1073 in this book also speak of snow.
The fourth line, "furinuru koto mo," means "that it has fallen," with "furi" joining the falling of snow and growing old.
The last line, "tare ni iwamashi," means "to whom should I tell it," with "mashi" an auxiliary of hesitation.
Author: Ukon
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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