Omoi areba sode ni hotaru o tsutsumite mo iwaba ya mono o tou hito wa nashi - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

おもひあれば袖に蛍を包みても
言はばや物を問ふ人はなし

Roma-ji: Omoi areba sode ni hotaru o tsutsumite mo iwaba ya mono o tou hito wa nashi
English Translation: Since my love's a fire,
though I wrap it in my sleeve
like fireflies there,
I would tell it, if I could,
yet no one comes to ask
Meaning: Because the fire of love burns in me, though I keep it wrapped like fireflies in my sleeve, I long to speak of it, yet there is no one who asks.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems I 1032

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On the sense of 'Summer Love' at a poetry contest held at his house."
This is the second of two poems of summer love. Though the fire of love is wrapped away like fireflies in the sleeve, the speaker longs to confess it, yet no one comes to ask. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic "Summer Love" at a poetry contest held at the house of Kujō Yoshitsune.
The author, "The Priest Jakuren," was born Fujiwara no Sadanaga, a nephew of Fujiwara no Shunzei who was for a time his adopted son. After taking holy orders he remained active as a poet and was appointed a compiler of the Shin Kokin Wakashū, but died before its completion.

In the first line, "omoi" pivots between longing and "hi," fire, associated with the fireflies' light.
The second line, "sode ni hotaru o," means "fireflies in my sleeve," laying the fire in the breast over the glowing insects.
The third line, "tsutsumite mo," means "even if I wrap it," as fireflies are wrapped in a sleeve. Their light was thought to leak through the sleeve, showing a feeling that shows however it is hidden.
In the fourth line, "baya" expresses a wish: I would tell it. The poem breaks here.
The last line, "tou hito wa nashi," means "there is no one who asks." Where Yoshitsune's preceding poem sang of love revealed so far that people ask, this one sings of wishing to confess with no one to ask, reversing the same "tou." Wrapping fireflies in a sleeve recalls the episode in The Tales of Yamato in which a young girl wraps fireflies in the sleeve of her kazami, and the poem from it is well known: "tsutsumedomo / kakurenu mono wa / natsumushi no / mi yori amareru / omoi narikeri."
Author: Jakuren
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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