Atarashiki toshi wa kuredomo itazura ni waga mi nomi koso furimasarikere - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

新しき年は来れどもいたづらに
我が身のみこそふりまさりけれ

Roma-ji: Atarashiki toshi wa kuredomo itazura ni waga mi nomi koso furimasarikere
English Translation: Though the year arrives,
a new year, all the same,
to no purpose now
it is only I myself
who keep growing ever old.
Meaning: The new year comes, yet in vain it is only I who grow ever older.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Spring Poems 1001

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet laments that though the new year comes, he only grows older in vain, having achieved nothing. It sets the world, renewed with every new year, against his own self, which only grows old. Following the preceding poem, 1000, which told of age added along with the joy of spring, it adds a further lament for growing old at the new year.
It shares with the Kokinshū poem "momochidori saezuru haru wa mono goto ni aratamaredomo ware zo furiyuku" the device of setting a renewed spring against a self that grows old.

First line, "atarashiki," means "new," beginning with the same word as the first line of the next poem, 1002, "atarashiki," so that two poems on the new year stand side by side.
Second line, "toshi wa kuredomo," means "though the year comes," with "domo" a concessive particle.
Third line, "itazura ni," means "in vain," "having done nothing." It shares the same word with the first line of the closing poem, 1081, "itazura ni."
Fourth line, "waga mi nomi koso," means "only I myself," with the binding particle "koso" resolved by the perfective form "kere" in the final line.
Final line, "furimasarikere," means "grow ever older," with "furu" meaning to grow old with the passing years. It pairs, as old against new, with "atarashiki toshi" in the first and second lines.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shui Wakashu
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