Yo no naka wa totemo kakutemo onaji koto miya mo waraya mo hateshi nakereba - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

世の中はとてもかくても同じこと
宮も藁屋も果てしなければ

Roma-ji: Yo no naka wa totemo kakutemo onaji koto miya mo waraya mo hateshi nakereba
English Translation: This world of ours—
whichever way we live in it,
it is all the same;
palace or a hut of straw,
neither will last to the end.
Meaning: In this world, whichever way one lives, it is all the same; neither palace nor straw hut can be dwelt in to the end.
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems III 1851

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the sixth of the poems on impermanence, the second of two by Semimaru, and the closing poem of Book Eighteen. In this world, whichever way one lives, it is all the same, for neither palace nor straw hut can be dwelt in forever. With this detached view that all things, high or low, are impermanent, it closes the book of Miscellaneous Poems III.
The author, "Semimaru," is a figure of legend whose dates and origins are uncertain. He is said to have lived near the Ōsaka Barrier. No author is named in the original; the attribution continues from the preceding poem.

The first line, "yo no naka wa," means "this world," taking up "yo no naka" at the end of the preceding poem. Taken as a whole, where Sugawara no Michizane in the book's opening poem, 1690, longed for the capital, "no one says, 'Come, let us go to the capital,'" this closing poem declares palace and straw hut alike, so that the beginning and end of the book answer each other.
The second line, "totemo kakutemo," means "one way or another, however one lives." It is the same phrase as in Gyōson's poem 1834 in this book.
The third line, "onaji koto," means "it is all the same." It echoes Henjō's poem 1817 in this book, which called a spider's web and a human house "the same," and the poem pauses here.
The fourth line, "miya mo waraya mo," means "palace and straw-thatched hut alike," setting the two extremes of high and low side by side.
The last line, "hateshi nakereba," means "since neither can be dwelt in to the end." Through inversion it gives the reason afterward, closing the book with the law of impermanence that transcends rank.
Author: Semimaru
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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