Shiri ni kemu kikite mo itoe yo no naka wa nami no sawagi ni kaze zo shikumeru - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

知りにけむ聞きても厭へ世の中は
波の騒ぎに風ぞしくめる

Roma-ji: Shiri ni kemu kikite mo itoe yo no naka wa nami no sawagi ni kaze zo shikumeru
English Translation: You must know it now;
even hearing, shun the world,
for the world, it seems,
upon the tumult of the waves
heaps the wind again and again.
Meaning: You must know it by now: shun the world, even if you only hear of it. The world, it seems, is like a raging sea, with wind piling upon the turmoil of the waves.
Commentary: Book Eighteen Miscellaneous Poems II 946

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Comparing the hardships of the world to wind blowing ever harder over raging waves, the poem urges the listener to shun the world even from hearsay. The image of a stormy sea shows a world where misfortunes pile up without end.
The author, "Furu no Imamichi," is Furu no Imamichi, a poet of the early Heian period whose career is not known in detail.

The first line, "you must know it now," uses ni (perfective) and kemu (conjecture about the past); the poem breaks after this line.
The second line, "even hearing, shun the world," is an imperative, with a second break.
The third line, "for the world," presents the theme.
The fourth line, "upon the tumult of the waves," compares the clamor of the world to waves.
The last line, "heaps the wind again and again," uses shiku, "to pile up, to occur repeatedly"; meru, the attributive form of the conjectural meri, completes the zo construction.
Author: Furu no Imamichi
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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