Kazoe shiru hito nakariseba okuyama no tani no matsu to ya toshi o tsumamashi - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

数へ知る人なかりせば奥山の
谷の松とや年を積ままし

Roma-ji: Kazoe shiru hito nakariseba okuyama no tani no matsu to ya toshi o tsumamashi
English Translation: Were there no one
who would count my years for me,
would I, like a pine
in a valley deep among the hills,
merely pile up all my years?
Meaning: Had there been no one to count my years for me, would I, like a pine in a valley deep in the mountains, simply have gone on piling up years unknown to anyone?
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 959

Headnote: "Composed when Jōtōmon'in held a celebration of my sixtieth year"
This was composed when Jōtōmon'in Shōshi held a celebration for her father Michinaga's sixtieth year. Had there been no one to count my years, would I have piled up years unknown, like a pine in a valley deep in the hills, he asks. Likening himself to the pine, a symbol of long life, he expresses gratitude to the daughter who held the celebration. Though he had reached the height of glory, it is a gentle poem rejoicing that there is someone to celebrate him.
The author, the "Lay Monk of Hōjōji, Former Chancellor," is Fujiwara no Michinaga. A son of Fujiwara no Kaneie, he made his daughters Shōshi, Kenshi and Ishi empresses one after another, rose to regent and chancellor, and brought the Fujiwara to the height of their power. In his later years he took the tonsure and founded Hōjōji, from which this title derives.
This poem opens the first book of miscellaneous poems. The book begins with a poem celebrating long life, and it answers the closing poem, 1051, "yuku toshi wa nami to tomo ni ya kaeruran," in singing of the passing of the years.

First line, "kazoe shiru": "to count and know," with Shōshi, who held the celebration, in mind.
Second line, "hito nakariseba": "se" is the irrealis of the past auxiliary "ki," and with "ba" it forms a counterfactual condition, "had there been no one."
Third line, "okuyama no": "of the deep mountains," a place far from human dwellings, unknown to others.
Fourth line, "tani no matsu to ya": "as a pine in the valley." The pine is a symbol of long life, fitting for a celebratory poem. "Ya" is an interrogative binding particle that closes with "mashi" in the fifth line.
Fifth line, "toshi o tsumamashi": "mashi" is the counterfactual auxiliary, "would I merely have piled up years?" It answers "yuku toshi wa" in the first line of the closing poem, 1051, in singing of the years.
Author: Fujiwara no Michinaga
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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