Kyō mo mata uma no kai koso fukitsunare hitsuji no ayumi chikazukinuran - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

今日もまた午の貝こそ吹きつなれ
ひつじの歩み近づきぬらん

Roma-ji: Kyō mo mata uma no kai koso fukitsunare hitsuji no ayumi chikazukinuran
English Translation: Today once again
the conch of the Horse hour
has sounded, it seems;
the steps of the Sheep must now
be drawing nearer still
Meaning: Today once again, it seems, they have blown the conch for the Hour of the Horse. The Hour of the Sheep, like the steps of a sheep led to slaughter, must now be drawing near.
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1200

Headnote: "Composed on hearing a conch being blown when I visited a mountain temple"
She composed this on hearing the conch blown to mark the hours when she visited a mountain temple. Today again they have blown the conch for the Horse; the steps of the Sheep must be drawing near, she says. Since the Hour of the Horse is followed by the Hour of the Sheep, she plays "hitsuji" as both the hour and the animal, and sings of the fleeting life that draws daily nearer to death, like the steps of a sheep led to the slaughterhouse. In Buddhist scripture the steps of a sheep to slaughter are a figure for human life drawing closer to death moment by moment.
The author, "Akazome Emon," was a daughter of Akazome no Tokimochi. The wife of the scholar Ōe no Masahira, she is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets of the middle ages.
It is the twenty-first of the humorous poems.

First line, "kyō mo mata": "today once again," speaking of the daily round and carrying the sense of life dwindling day by day.
Second line, "uma no kai koso": "uma no kai" is the conch blown at the Hour of the Horse. "Uma" also means the animal horse, answering the sheep in the fourth line. "Koso," an emphatic binding particle, closes with "nare" in the third line.
Third line, "fukitsunare": "tsu" is perfective and "nare" the perfective form of the inferential "nari," "it seems they have blown it." The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "hitsuji no ayumi": "hitsuji" plays on the Hour of the Sheep, which follows the Horse, and the animal sheep. Drawing on the steps of a sheep to slaughter, it speaks of life drawing nearer to death.
Fifth line, "chikazukinuran": "nu" is perfective and "ran" the auxiliary of present conjecture, "must have drawn near."
Author: Akazome Emon
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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