いつか我昔の人と言はるべき
重なる年を送り迎へて
重なる年を送り迎へて
- Roma-ji
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Itsu ka ware mukashi no hito to iwaru beki kasanaru toshi o okurimukaete
- English Translation
-
Someday I as well
'one of those of long ago'
shall be called by men,
as the years pile one on one,
seeing them out and welcoming.
- Meaning
- Someday I too will be spoken of as one of the people of long ago, as I see off and welcome in the years that pile up one upon another.
- Commentary
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Winter Poems 577
Headnote: "On the impermanence of things"
The headnote tells us this was composed on the impermanence of things. Seeing off each year and welcoming the next, as the years pile up, the poet foresees that someday he too will be spoken of as one of the dead, a person of long ago. In the passing of the old year and the coming of the new he looks at the end of his own life.
This poem closes the winter section. Where 491 at the head of the book marked the end of autumn and the start of winter with a storm scattering the leaves, this poem at its end marks the end of the year and of one's own life through the seeing out and welcoming of years, deepening the close of the season into the impermanence of human life to end the book.
First line, “itsu ka ware”: itsu ka means someday, with ka a binding particle answering the attributive beki in the third line.
Second line, “mukashi no hito to”: mukashi no hito is a person of long ago, one who has died.
Third line, “iwaru beki”: ru is passive and beki the attributive of an auxiliary of conjecture, I shall be called; the poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, “kasanaru toshi o”: the years piling up, the accumulation of one's age.
Fifth line, “okurimukaete”: okurimukau is to see out the old year and welcome the new; this stands in inversion to the first three lines and, taking up the year-end poems, closes the book.
- Author
- Saigyō
- Source
- Sankashu
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Awazaran koto oba shirade hahakigi no fuseya to kikite tazune kinikeri