Tama matsuru toshi no owari ni narinikeri kyō ni ya mata mo awamu to suramu - Shika Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

魂祭る年の終はりになりにけり
今日にやまたも会はむとすらむ

Roma-ji: Tama matsuru toshi no owari ni narinikeri kyō ni ya mata mo awamu to suramu
English Translation: The year’s end has come,
when we hold rites for the souls
of those departed;
am I, then, once again
to meet with this same day?
Meaning: The end of the year has come, when we hold rites for the spirits of the dead. Am I, it seems, to meet this day once more, still among the living?
Commentary: Book Four Winter Poems 160

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed on the spirit of the year’s end."
At year’s end the spirits of the ancestors were believed to return, and rites were held for them. On that last day the poet reflects that once again he has lived on to meet it; the poem closes the winter book of the Shikashū.
Viewing the day for welcoming the dead from the side of one who greets it alive, the poem quietly breathes a sense of impermanence.

First line, “tama matsuru”: “holding rites for the spirits,” the custom of welcoming ancestral souls at year’s end.
Second line, “toshi no owari ni”: “at the end of the year,” following the year-end topic of the preceding poem.
Third line, “narinikeri”: completion and exclamation, with a break after the line. It echoes the opening poem of the book, 140, “kaminazuki ni mo narinikeru kana,” so that the beginning and end of winter answer each other.
Fourth line, “kyō ni ya mata mo”: interrogative “ya” calls for “ramu” at the close: “on this day, once again.”
Fifth line, “awamu to suramu”: “mu to su,” “to be about to,” with present conjecture “ramu,” as he gazes at himself still living on.
Author: Sone no Yoshitada
Source: Shika Wakashu
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