Kazoureba waga mi ni tsumoru toshitsuki o okuri mukau to nani isogu ran - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

数ふれば我が身に積もる年月を
送り迎ふと何急ぐらん

Roma-ji: Kazoureba waga mi ni tsumoru toshitsuki o okuri mukau to nani isogu ran
English Translation: When I count them up,
the years and months pile upon
this body of mine—
why then do we hurry so
to see one off and greet the next?
Meaning: When I count them, they are years and months piling up on my own body—so why do we hurry to see out the old year and welcome the new?
Commentary: Book Four Winter Poems 261

Headnote: "For a folding screen of the Kamo High Priestess, the night of the last day of the Twelfth Month"
On the last night of the year people bustle about seeing out the old year and welcoming the new, yet the poet asks why they hurry, when, counted up, these are nothing but the years and months piling up on one's own body. Amid the year-end bustle, he sets the feeling of one who grows ever older. According to the headnote, it was written for a scene of the night of the last day of the Twelfth Month on a folding screen of the Kamo High Priestess.
The author, written as Kanemori, is Taira no Kanemori. Of a Taira line descended from Emperor Kōkō, he was a poet of the mid-Heian period. He is known for his performance at the palace poetry contest of the fourth year of Tentoku and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "kazoureba," means "when I count."
Second line, "waga mi ni tsumoru," means "piling up on my own body," referring to accumulating age. It takes up the fourth line of the preceding poem, "toshi nomi tsumoru."
Third line, "toshitsuki o," means "the years and months."
Fourth line, "okuri mukau to," means "saying we see off the old and welcome the new."
Final line, "nani isogu ran," means "why do we hurry, I wonder," with "ran" an auxiliary conjecturing a cause. It carries the thought that welcoming a year means growing older.
Author: Taira no Kanemori
Source: Shui Wakashu
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