Kyō mo mata kaku ya Ibuki no sashimogusa saraba ware nomi moe ya wataran - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

今日もまたかくやいぶきのさしも草
さらば我のみ燃えやわたらん

Roma-ji: Kyō mo mata kaku ya Ibuki no sashimogusa saraba ware nomi moe ya wataran
English Translation: Today once again
will you say so? Ibuki's
moxa grass: if so,
shall I then, alone, go on
smoldering, burning always?
Meaning: Will you say the same again today? Then shall I alone go on burning, like the moxa grass of Mount Ibuki?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 1012

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the second poem of the sequence on love sung through mountains. Lamenting that the beloved will say the same cold words again today, the speaker asks whether she alone must go on burning like the moxa grass of Mount Ibuki. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Izumi Shikibu," was a daughter of Ōe no Masamune, Governor of Echizen. She was called Izumi Shikibu after becoming the wife of Tachibana no Michisada, Governor of Izumi, and later served Empress Shōshi. The Izumi Shikibu Diary is hers.

The first line, "kyō mo mata," means "today once more," showing the beloved's attitude repeated again and again.
In the second line, "ibuki" pivots between "iu," to say, as in "will you say so," and Ibuki, the mountain famed for moxa grass. The question particle "ya" is resolved by "iu."
In the third line, "sashimogusa" is mugwort, the source of moxa for cautery, sung in connection with the fire of love as a thing that burns.
The fourth line, "saraba ware nomi," means "then I alone," turning from the beloved's coldness to a love borne alone.
In the last line, "ya" poses a question resolved by "ran": shall I go on burning like the moxa grass? Like "koi ya wataran" in 993 and 1001, it closes with "... ya wataran," echoing the lament of a love carried on alone. After Mount Mikasa in the preceding poem, Mount Ibuki is set here.
Author: Izumi Shikibu
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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