Toshitsuki o ikade waga mi ni okuriken kinō no hito mo kyō wa naki yo ni

年月をいかで我が身に送りけん
昨日の人も今日はなき世に

Roma-ji: Toshitsuki o ikade waga mi ni okuriken kinō no hito mo kyō wa naki yo ni
English Translation: Months and years so long,
how is it that I have passed
them all, in a world
where those who were yesterday
are no longer here today?
Meaning: How have I managed to pass so many months and years, in a world where someone here yesterday is gone today?
Commentary: Miscellaneous Poems 768

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
In a world of impermanence where someone here yesterday is gone today, how has the poet managed to live on for so many years? The more he thinks of how swiftly people die, the stranger it seems that he has survived. This poem closes the sequence of poems with topic unknown.

First line, “toshitsuki o”: the long months and years.
Second line, “ikade waga mi ni”: ikade asks how.
Third line, “okuriken”: ken is conjecture about the past, how have I passed them; the poem breaks here.
Fourth line, “kinō no hito mo”: the one who was here yesterday, setting yesterday beside today like 'kinō to kyō' in 766.
Fifth line, “kyō wa naki yo ni”: in a world where they are gone today, inverted to follow the third line.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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