Oinureba toshi no kureyuku tabigoto ni waga mi hitotsu to omōyuru kana

老いぬれば年の暮れゆくたびごとに
我が身ひとつと思ほゆるかな

Roma-ji: Oinureba toshi no kureyuku tabigoto ni waga mi hitotsu to omōyuru kana
English Translation: Now that I've grown old,
each time the year draws near
to its close, I feel
as if it came to me alone—
or so it seems to me.
Meaning: Now that I have grown old, each time the year draws to its close, it feels as though the ending were mine alone.
Commentary: Winter Poems 394

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "An old man grieving over the year's end"
Now that he has grown old, each time the year draws to its close, the poet feels as though that ending had come to him alone. Though the year's end comes alike to everyone, he sings how it pierces an aging heart in particular.
The poem uses waga mi hitotsu, "I alone," from the Kokin Wakashū poem by Ōe no Chisato in which the moon stirs a thousand sorrows though autumn is not his alone. Where Chisato said that the autumn was not his alone, this poem says the year's end seems his alone.

Line 1 means "now that I have grown old."
Line 2 means "the year drawing to its close."
Line 3 means "each time," showing the year's ends piled one upon another.
Line 4 means "as if it were mine alone," using Chisato's words.
Line 5 is the same as that of the preceding poem.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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