Yuku toshi no yukue o toeba yo no naka no hito koso hitotsu moukuberanare

行く年の行方を問へば世の中の
人こそ一つ設くべらなれ

Roma-ji: Yuku toshi no yukue o toeba yo no naka no hito koso hitotsu moukuberanare
English Translation: When I ask the way
the passing year has gone,
it seems that each
of the people in this world
receives one year apiece.
Meaning: When I ask where the departing year has gone, it seems that each person in the world receives it, one year apiece.
Commentary: Winter Poems 406

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "The year's end"
Asking where the departing year goes, the poet finds that each person in the world seems to receive it, one year apiece, and so grow older. With wit he discovers the departing year's destination in the year each person gains, and the poem closes the winter section.
The Ruijū text titles it "A poem on the end of the year" and places it in the miscellaneous section.

Line 1 means "of the departing year," the same words as line 3 of 397 and 398.
Line 2 means "when I ask where it goes," echoing the sound of yuku in line 1 with yukue.
Line 3 means "of this world."
Line 4: koso is a binding particle concluded in line 5; it means each person gains one year.
Line 5 concludes koso with beranare, the evaluative form of the conjectural beranari, surmising that each receives a year. Whereas 312 at the head of this section began with "autumn has gone," this closing poem ends by asking where the departing year goes, so the opening and the close answer each other in what passes away.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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