Mina hito no shirigao ni shite shiranu kana kanarazu shinuru narai ari to wa

English Translation

All people alike
wear a knowing look, and yet
they do not know—
that for all there is the law
that we must surely die.

Meaning

All people wear a knowing look, yet they do not truly know that there is a law by which we all must surely die.

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 832

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On the heart of impermanence."
This is the second poem of the sequence on the heart of impermanence. It says that all people wear a knowing look yet do not know that there is a law by which all must die. The headnote continues from the preceding poem, a composition on "the heart of impermanence."
The son of Chancellor Fujiwara no Tadamichi, the author served four times as head of the Tendai school and wrote the history Gukanshō.
The scene and place are not recorded.
The direct occasion is composing on the topic "the heart of impermanence."

The first line, "mina hito no," means "all people."
In the second line, "shirigao ni shite," "shirigao" is a knowing look.
In the third line, "shiranu kana," "kana" is exclamatory, meaning "they do not know." Setting "shiri," knowing, in the second line against "shira," not knowing, in the third, it shows the gap between seeming to know and truly not knowing. The poem pauses after the third line.
The fourth line, "kanarazu shinuru," means "surely die."
In the last line, "narai ari to wa," "narai" is the law or way of the world. With "to wa," the content of "shiranu" in the third line is placed at the end through inversion. Everyone knows as a matter of knowledge that all must die, yet does not know it as their own. Taking up the preceding poem, 831, which sang of people passing their days without knowing the next life, this poem sings of people who do not know the very law of death. The next poem, 833, belongs to the same sequence.

Author

Jien

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other