classic waka stream

かくばかり憂き世の中を忍びても
待つべきことの末にあるかは
Roma-ji

Kakubakari ukiyo no naka o shinobite mo matsubeki koto no sue ni aru ka wa

English Translation
Though I bear in silence
a world so full of sorrow
as the one we know,
is there at the end of it
anything worth waiting for?
Meaning
Even if I bear with patience a world as full of sorrow as this, is there anything worth waiting for at the end? Surely not.
Commentary
Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1121

Headnote: "Composed as a poem expressing my grievances"
This poem was composed as a poem of grievance. Though I bear a world this sorrowful, is there anything worth waiting for at the end, he says. People think that if one patiently endures the painful world, some good will come in time. But he declares, through a rhetorical question, that nothing worth waiting for lies ahead, voicing strongly the lament of one who cannot hold any hope.
The author, "the monk Tōren," was a monk of the late Heian period. He was one of the poets who gathered at Shun'e's Karin'en, and anecdotes tell of his zeal for waka.
It shares the first line "kakubakari" with 1070 and 1119 of this book, and with 1070 in particular it shares the opening "kakubakari ukiyo no." Where 1070 sings of cherries still glowing at the latter end of the sorrowful world, this poem says that at the end of the sorrowful world there is nothing worth waiting for, so the two contrast around "sue," the end.

First line, "kakubakari": "to such a degree." It is the same first line as 1070 and 1119 of this book.
Second line, "ukiyo no naka o": "this sorrowful world." Its opening recalls "ukiyo no sue ni" in the second line of 1070 of this book.
Third line, "shinobite mo": "even if I endure it."
Fourth line, "matsubeki koto no": "anything worth waiting for."
Fifth line, "sue ni aru ka wa": "sue" means the future, the end, and "ka wa" is a rhetorical binding particle, "is there any at the end? There is not." It shares "sue" with "ukiyo no sue ni" in the second line of 1070 of this book.
Author
Tōren
Source
Senzai Wakashu
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