Yo no naka ni furu zo hakanaki shirayuki no katsu wa kienuru mono to shirushiru - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

世の中にふるぞはかなき白雪の
かつは消えぬるものと知る知る

Roma-ji: Yo no naka ni furu zo hakanaki shirayuki no katsu wa kienuru mono to shirushiru
English Translation: To go on living
in this world is fleeting, like
the falling white snow,
which melts even as it falls,
and I know it, know it well.
Meaning: How fleeting it is to go on living in this world, like the white snow falling and melting even as it falls, knowing, all too well knowing, that it is so.
Commentary: Book Twenty Lament Poems 1332

Headnote: "Written on folded paper and left behind when, around the time he meant to become a priest, snow had fallen"
The poet says it is fleeting to live on in this world, knowing all too well that it is like white snow melting even as it falls. The headnote shows that around the time he meant to take vows, snow fell, and he wrote this on folded paper and left it. Pivoting on "furu," to live on and to fall, and laying a life that must vanish over snow that melts as it falls, he sings of the fleetingness of lingering in the world though knowing this, and so shows his resolve to take vows. Takamitsu took vows in Ōwa 1 (961). Following the preceding poem, 1330, it is a poem of taking vows.
The author, Fujiwara no Takamitsu, was a son of the Minister of the Right Fujiwara no Morosuke. He took vows while young and, living at Tōnomine, was called the Tōnomine Lesser Captain. He is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "yo no naka ni," means "in this world."
Second line, "furu zo hakanaki," is a pivot word: "furu" means to "live on" in the world and snow "falling." The binding particle "zo" is resolved by "hakanaki," the attributive form of the adjective, and the poem breaks after this second line.
Third line, "shirayuki no," means "of the white snow," brought in through "falling" in the second line.
Fourth line, "katsu wa kienuru," means "melting even as it falls," with "katsu" meaning "at the same time."
Final line, "mono to shirushiru," means "knowing, knowing it is so," repeating "shiru" to stress that he knows it well.
Author: Fujiwara no Takamitsu
Source: Shui Wakashu
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