Ashigamo no hakaze ni nabiku ukikusa no sadame naki yo o tare ka tanomamu - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

あし鴨の羽風になびく浮草の
定めなき世を誰か頼まむ

Roma-ji: Ashigamo no hakaze ni nabiku ukikusa no sadame naki yo o tare ka tanomamu
English Translation: Like the floating weeds
bending in the wing-stirred breeze
of the reed-bed ducks,
in this ever-shifting world,
who is there that can trust?
Meaning: This world is as unsettled as floating weeds that bend in the breeze of the reed-bed ducks' wings; who could ever put trust in it?
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1708

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This poem pairs with the preceding one, sharing the opening line "ashigamo no." Like floating weeds that bend even in the breeze of a duck's wings, this world is unsettled, and no one can rely on it. The sense that an impermanent world cannot be trusted is entrusted to a waterside scene.
The author, "Yoshinobu Ason," is Ōnakatomi no Yoshinobu. The son of Ōnakatomi no Yorimoto, he served as chief priest of the Ise Shrine. As one of the Five Men of the Pear Chamber he took part in compiling the Gosen Wakashū, and he is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

The first line, "ashigamo no," is the same as in the preceding poem. There the clamoring ducks muddied the water; here the breeze of their wings stirs the floating weeds.
The second line, "hakaze ni nabiku," means "bending even in the slight breeze of the ducks' wingbeats."
The third line, "ukikusa no," is weeds that drift on the surface without putting down roots. The lines up to here form a preface leading to "unsettled."
The fourth line, "sadame naki yo o," is a world that shifts and never settles. It echoes the preceding poem's "hard to live in the world" and widens the theme to the world's uncertainty.
In the last line, "tare ka tanomamu," "ka" is a rhetorical particle, closed in kakari-musubi by the attributive form of the conjectural "mu." It carries the negative sense that no one can rely on it.
Author: Onakatomi no Yoshinobu
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
Prev Poem: Ashigamo no sawagu irie no mizu no e no yo ni sumigataki waga mi narikeri
Next Poem: Oinikeru nagisa no matsu no fukamidori shizumeru kage o yoso ni ya wa miru