Kazu naranu mi ni sae toshi no tsumoru kana oi wa hito o mo kirawazarikeri - Shika Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

数ならぬ身にさへ年の積もるかな
老いは人をも嫌はざりけり

Roma-ji: Kazu naranu mi ni sae toshi no tsumoru kana oi wa hito o mo kirawazarikeri
English Translation: Even on one like me,
of no account, the years
keep piling up;
old age, it seems, refuses
to shun anyone at all.
Meaning: Even upon one as insignificant as I, the years keep piling up. Old age, it turns out, does not shun anyone.
Commentary: Book Four Winter Poems 159

Headnote: "Composed on the spirit of the year’s end."
At the close of the year, the poet laments that age is added even to one as worthless as himself, without distinction. In the wry, resigned observation that old age chooses no one, the feeling of the year’s end is distilled.
From here to the end of the book, two poems treat the year’s end.

First line, “kazu naranu”: “not worth counting,” with humility and self-mockery.
Second line, “mi ni sae toshi no”: additive “sae,” “even upon such a self.”
Third line, “tsumoru kana”: the gathering of years is called “piling up,” and the poem breaks here. After the snow piled up in 156, now it is the years that pile up.
Fourth line, “oi wa hito o mo”: old age is personified as one who might pick and choose among people.
Fifth line, “kirawazarikeri”: negative with realizing “keri”: old age, he finds, shuns no one.
Source: Shika Wakashu
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