Itsu to naku shio yaku ama no tomabisashi hisashiku narinu awanu omoi wa - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

いつとなく塩焼く海人の苫庇
久しくなりぬ逢はぬ思ひは

Roma-ji: Itsu to naku shio yaku ama no tomabisashi hisashiku narinu awanu omoi wa
English Translation: Endlessly the fishers
burn their salt beneath the eaves
of their rush-thatched huts;
long, so long it has become,
this love that never meets.
Meaning: Like the rush-thatched eaves of the fishers who burn salt at all hours, long, so long it has grown, this love of mine that never meets.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 1115

Headnote: "When hundred-poem sequences were composed at the house of the Lay Priest and Former Regent; on the idea of 'Love Without Meeting.'"
This is the first of three poems on love linked to fishers burning salt. Like the rush-thatched eaves of fishers who burn salt at all hours, the speaker's love without meeting has grown long. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic "Love Without Meeting" when hundred-poem sequences were composed at the house of the Lay Priest and Former Regent.
The author is Fujiwara no Motosuke; "Ason" in the original name is an honorific for officials of the fifth rank and above. He was a courtier of the late Heian period.
The "Lay Priest and Former Regent" of the headnote is Kujō Kanezane.

The first line, "itsu to naku," means "at no fixed time," that is, always.
The second line, "shio yaku ama no," means "of the fishers who burn salt." After poems 1082 and 1083 in this book, the image of fishers burning salt appears again.
The third line, "tomabisashi," is the eaves of a humble hut thatched with rush mats. The lines up to here form a preface leading to "hisashiku" in the fourth line, which shares the sound of "hisashi," eaves.
The fourth line, "hisashiku narinu," means "it has grown long," and the poem breaks after the fourth line. Taking up the piling years of the preceding poem, time passing without a meeting is sung again.
The last line, "awanu omoi wa," means "this love that never meets," the subject of the fourth line placed in the last line through inversion. The topic "Love Without Meeting" is shown in the last line.
Author: Fujiwara no Motosuke
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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