Au koto wa itsu to ibuki no mine ni ouru sashimo taesenu omoi narikeri - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

逢ふことはいつといぶきの峰に生ふる
さしも絶えせぬおもひなりけり

Roma-ji: Au koto wa itsu to ibuki no mine ni ouru sashimo taesenu omoi narikeri
English Translation: Meeting, when will it be?
who can say? On Ibuki's peak
the moxa-grass grows,
and so unending burns
the fire of my longing.
Meaning: When shall we meet? Who can say? Like the moxa-grass that grows on the peak of Ibuki, the fire of my love burns on, never dying out.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 1131

Headnote: "At the hundred-poem contest held at the house of the Regent and Grand Chancellor."
This is the first of two poems on burning love linked to mountains. No one can say when they will meet, yet like the moxa-grass growing on the peak of Ibuki, the fire of love never dies. According to the headnote, it was composed for the hundred-poem contest held at the house of the Regent and Grand Chancellor, Fujiwara no Yoshitsune.
The author, "Iefusa, Master of the Empress's Household," is Fujiwara no Iefusa. The son of Regent Matsudono Motofusa, he served as master of the empress's household.
This contest is the Poetry Contest in Six Hundred Rounds, held by Yoshitsune in Kenkyū 4 (1193). Mount Ibuki is a poetic place-name sung with sashimogusa, moxa-grass. The source poem is Fujiwara no Sanekata's Goshūishū poem, "Can I say even this much? No; like the moxa-grass of Ibuki, you cannot know so much of this burning love."

The first line, "au koto wa," means "as for meeting." Poem 1110 in this book begins with the same line, where the difficulty of meeting was worked into a place-name.
In the second line, "itsu to ibuki no," "ibuki" holds both "iu," to say when, and the place-name Ibuki.
The third line, "mine ni ouru," means "growing on the peak," a hypermetric line of six syllables. The lines up to here lead to "sashimo" in the fourth line.
In the fourth line, "sashimo taesenu," "sashimo" holds both "sashimogusa," the moxa-grass for which Ibuki was famed, and "sashimo," so very much. The source poem too layers "sashimogusa" with "sashimo," and this poem borrows the device.
In the last line, "omoi narikeri," "omoi" holds both "omoi," longing, and "hi," fire, bound by association to the moxa-grass burned in moxibustion. The next poem ends with the same last line, "omoi narikeri," so the two poems are placed side by side through the same closing.
Author: Fujiwara no Iefusa
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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