Kazoureba yatose henikeri aware waga shizumishi koto wa kinō to omou ni - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

数ふれば八年経にけりあはれわが
沈みしことは昨日と思ふに

Roma-ji: Kazoureba yatose henikeri aware waga shizumishi koto wa kinō to omou ni
English Translation: When I count them up,
eight years have gone by, alas,
and yet my sinking
from the ranks still seems to me
to have happened yesterday
Meaning: When I count them, eight years have already passed. Alas, it seems only yesterday that I sank from my place in the world.
Commentary: Book Twenty Shinto Poems 1262

Headnote: "Composed as a poem of personal grievance when, having resigned as major counselor and no longer serving at court, people composed poems for the Sumiyoshi Shrine poetry contest. Afterward, it is said, he had a dream as if by divine grace and was reinstated as major counselor"
He composed this as a poem of personal grievance for the Sumiyoshi Shrine poetry contest while he had resigned as provisional major counselor and was not serving at court. Counting them, eight years have passed; alas, my sinking seems but yesterday, he says. Lamenting how fast the years have flown since he withdrew from office and sank into obscurity, he lays his grief before the god of Sumiyoshi. The headnote says that afterward he had a dream as if by divine grace and was restored as major counselor. He resigned as provisional major counselor in 1165 and returned as major counselor in 1177.
The author, "Right Great Minister," is Fujiwara no Sanesada. The name is a native rendering of minister of the right, the post he held when this anthology was compiled. A son of the Minister of the Right Fujiwara no Kin'yoshi, he later rose to minister of the left and was called the Later Tokudaiji Minister of the Left. He was a nephew of Fujiwara no Shunzei.
Poems from the Sumiyoshi contest continue; the next poem, 1263, is a poem of grievance from the same contest, and 1264 and 1265 are poems from it on the moon at the shrine.

First line, "kazoureba": "when I count them up."
Second line, "yatose henikeri": "ni" is perfective and "keri" exclamatory, "eight years have gone by." The poem pauses here.
Third line, "aware waga": "aware" is an interjection, a cry of grief.
Fourth line, "shizumishi koto wa": "shizumu" means to sink into misfortune, one's career at a standstill, and "shi" is the attributive of the past "ki."
Fifth line, "kinō to omou ni": "ni" is an adversative conjunctive particle, "though it seems but yesterday." Set against the "eight years" of the second line, it brings out how swiftly time has passed.
Author: Fujiwara no Sanesada
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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