Haru ya koshi aki ya yukiken obotsukana kage no kuchiki to yo o sugusu mi wa - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

春や来し秋や行きけんおぼつかな
陰の朽木と世を過ぐす身は

Roma-ji: Haru ya koshi aki ya yukiken obotsukana kage no kuchiki to yo o sugusu mi wa
English Translation: Has spring come, I wonder,
or has autumn gone away?
I cannot tell,
I who pass my days as
a rotting tree in the shade
Meaning: Has spring come, or has autumn gone? I cannot tell, I who pass my days in this world like a rotting tree left in the shade.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems II 1175

Headnote: "When I was living in a mountain village, someone I had known long ago asked, "Since when have you lived here?""
The poet says that one who passes her days like a rotting tree in the shade cannot tell whether spring has come or autumn gone. Asked how long she has lived there, she answers by likening the years she has spent buried in the mountain village, forgotten by the world and unsure even of the turning seasons, to a decaying tree in the shade.
According to the headnote, while she was living in a mountain village, an old acquaintance asked her since when she had lived there. Following the preceding poem, it is again a woman secluded in the mountains answering someone from the past.
The poet, Kan'in, was a palace lady of the Engi era, also called Kan'in no Go. Her dates and birth are unknown, and her name seems to come from the Kan'in, the old mansion of Fujiwara no Fuyutsugu.

The first line, "Haru ya koshi," means "has spring come," with "ya" an interrogative binding particle and "shi" the attributive of the past "ki."
The second line, "aki ya yukiken," means "or has autumn gone," repeating the paired phrasing of the first line.
The third line, "obotsukana," means "I cannot tell," the stem of the adjective "obotsukanashi" used as an exclamation. The poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "kage no kuchiki to," means "as a rotting tree in the shade," figuring one forgotten by the world. It answers "hikage ni ouru mi" in 1125, the opening poem of the book.
The last line, "yo o sugusu mi wa," means "for me who passes my days," inverted with the third line.
Author: Kan'in
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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