Yū sareba hotaru yori ke ni moyuredomo hikari mineba ya hito no tsurenaki - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

夕されば蛍よりけに燃ゆれども
光見ねばや人のつれなき

Roma-ji: Yū sareba hotaru yori ke ni moyuredomo hikari mineba ya hito no tsurenaki
English Translation: When evening falls, I
burn more fiercely than the fireflies,
and yet is it because
she does not see the light
that she remains so cold?
Meaning: When evening comes I burn with love more fiercely than the fireflies, yet perhaps because she cannot see the light, she remains cold to me.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 562

Headnote: "A poem from the poetry contest held at the residence of the Empress in the Kanpyō era"
The poet says that when evening comes he burns with love more fiercely than the glow of fireflies, and wonders whether the beloved is cold because the flame cannot be seen. The conventional love-poem image of omoi, love, containing hi, fire, is made concrete by comparing it with the light of fireflies on a summer night. Following the summer moths of the previous poem, it takes up fireflies, so the two poems on summer insects form a pair. It was composed for the Kanpyō-era Empress's poetry contest and is placed within the run of poems from that contest.
Ki no Tomonori was a poet of the early Heian period, the son of Ki no Aritomo and a cousin of Ki no Tsurayuki. He served as Senior Private Secretary and was appointed one of the compilers of the Kokinshū, but died before its completion. He is one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals.

First line, "yū sareba": yū saru means evening comes, and ba here marks a habitual condition, "whenever evening comes." It is also the hour of waiting for a lover's visit.
Second line, "hotaru yori ke ni": ke ni means even more, all the more. With the firefly's glow as the standard, he speaks of the intensity of his feelings.
Third line, "moyuredomo": burning with love is likened to fire, and the concessive domo leads into the fourth line. It echoes the summer moths that throw themselves into the flame in the previous poem, 561.
Fourth line, "hikari mineba ya": "because, unlike a firefly's, the light of love cannot be seen"; ya is an interrogative binding particle paired with the final line.
Fifth line, "hito no tsurenaki": the attributive tsurenaki resolves ya. It expresses his lament that the beloved does not know of the invisible fire of his love.
Author: Ki no Tomonori
Source: Kokin Wakashu
Prev Poem: Yoi no ma mo hakanaku miyuru natsumushi ni mayoi masareru koi mo suru kana
Next Poem: Sasa no ha ni oku shimo yori mo hitori nuru waga koromode zo saemasarikeru