Naniwame no koromo hosu tote karite taku ashibi no keburi tatanu hi zo naki - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

難波女の衣干すとて刈りて焚く
芦火の煙立たぬ日ぞなき

Roma-ji: Naniwame no koromo hosu tote karite taku ashibi no keburi tatanu hi zo naki
English Translation: Women of Naniwa,
to dry their robes in the sun,
cut the reeds and burn—
the smoke of their reed fires,
not a day it does not rise.
Meaning: The women of Naniwa cut reeds and burn them to dry their robes, and there is not a day when the smoke of the reed fires does not rise.
Commentary: Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1593

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the fourth poem of the sequence on the salt-burning and fires of the fisherfolk. There is no day, it says, when the smoke of reed fires does not rise, as the women of Naniwa cut reeds and burn them to dry their robes. The headnote gives the topic as unknown and records nothing of the circumstances.
The author, "Tsurayuki," was a son of Ki no Mochiyuki and one of the compilers of the Kokinshū. He wrote its Kana Preface and authored the Tosa Diary.
Naniwa lies in Settsu Province, around present-day Osaka. As a bay thick with reeds, it is often sung together with reeds.

The first line, "Naniwame no," means "of the women living at Naniwa." From the fisherfolk of Shika in the preceding poem, the scene moves to Naniwa in Settsu.
The second line, "koromo hosu tote," means "saying they will dry their robes." It shows a moment of daily life: making a fire to dry wet garments.
The third line, "karite taku," means "cutting the reeds and burning them." Like the last line of 1591 in this book, "ama no taku hi ka," it uses the word "taku," "to burn."
The fourth line, "ashibi no keburi," is the smoke of burning reeds. Taking up the "smoke of the salt fires" of the preceding poem, smoke binds the sequence together. The word "reed" also echoes the "Ashinoya" of 1590.
The last line, "tatanu hi zo naki," closes the kakari-musubi of "zo" with "naki," the attributive form of the adjective "nashi." By stacking negatives, "no day when it does not rise," it depicts the unbroken daily life of Naniwa. Whereas the smoke of the preceding poem "does not rise," here smoke rises every day.
Author: Ki no Tsurayuki
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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