Hito o tou kane no koe koso aware nare itsu ka waga mi ni naramu to suramu - Shika Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

人を問ふ鐘の声こそあはれなれ
いつか我が身にならむとすらむ

Roma-ji: Hito o tou kane no koe koso aware nare itsu ka waga mi ni naramu to suramu
English Translation: The voice of the bell
tolling to mourn someone's death
moves me so deeply —
when, I wonder, will it be
that it tolls for me as well
Meaning: How deeply the bell tolling for someone's death moves me; when, I wonder, will it be tolling for me?
Commentary: Book Ten Miscellaneous Poems II 406

Hearing the bell tolled to mourn the dead, the poet is deeply moved and wonders when it will toll to announce his own death. In a bell that marks another's death he senses his own, an awareness of impermanence.
Poem 357 of this book also sings of not knowing whether one will hear the evening bell tomorrow, so poems overlaying the bell's sound with the frailty of life echo each other.

The first line, "hito o tou," refers to mourning the dead.
The second line, "kane no koe koso," singles out the tolling bell with "koso."
The third line, "aware nare," closes "koso" with the perfective of "aware nari," a kakari-musubi: how moving, with a break after the third line.
The fourth line, "itsu ka waga mi ni," means someday for myself.
The final line, "naramu to suramu," combines the conjectural "mu" and "ramu": will it come to that?
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shika Wakashu
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