Aratama no toshi wa kyō asu koenubeshi ausakayama o ware ya okuren - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

あらたまの年は今日明日越えぬべし
相坂山を我や遅れん

Roma-ji: Aratama no toshi wa kyō asu koenubeshi ausakayama o ware ya okuren
English Translation: The year, rough as jewels
uncut, will cross over
today or tomorrow—
must I alone be left behind
at the Slope of Meeting
Meaning: Today or tomorrow the old year will surely cross over; must I alone be left behind, unable to cross Ōsaka, the Slope of Meeting?
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems VI 1074

Headnote: "Sent around the end of the year to a woman he had been courting."
The poet says that the year will cross over today or tomorrow, and asks whether he alone will be left behind at Ōsakayama. While the year passes over, he fears being left without crossing Ōsaka, the slope of meeting, and voices the impatience of a love still unfulfilled at the year's end.
According to the headnote, he sent it to a woman he had been courting around the end of the year. It is the closing poem of Love Poems VI. Where the opening poem, 994, began with "au koto o," meeting, this one closes on the longing to meet with Ōsakayama, so the start and end of the book answer each other through the word "meet." Following the poems of snow and winter that run from 1068, it closes the book at the year's end.
The poet, Fujiwara no Tokifuru, was a poet of the time of the Gosenshu, and little more is known of his life.

The first line, "Aratama no," is a pillow word for "toshi," year.
The second line, "toshi wa kyō asu," means "the year, today or tomorrow," showing that it is the end of the year.
The third line, "koenubeshi," means "will surely cross over," with "nubeshi" strong conjecture. It overlays the turning of the year with crossing a mountain. The poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "ausakayama o," means "Ōsakayama," overlaying Ōsaka with the meeting of lovers. "Ausaka" also appears in the third line of 1038 in this book, and it answers "au koto o" in the first line of the opening poem, 994.
The last line, "ware ya okuren," means "shall I be left behind," with "ya" an interrogative binding particle closed by the attributive "n." It closes the book with the lament of one left behind as the year moves on.
Author: Fujiwara no Tokifuru
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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