Sode no ura ni tada waga yaku to shiotarete fune nagashitaru ama to koso nare - Izumi Shikibu Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

袖の浦にたゝわかやくとしほたれて
船流したる蜑と社なれ

Roma-ji: Sode no ura ni tada waga yaku to shiotarete fune nagashitaru ama to koso nare
English Translation: At the Bay of Sleeves,
simply thinking it my task
to burn salt, drenched in brine,
I have become a fisherwoman
whose boat has drifted away
Meaning: On the Bay of Sleeves, thinking only of my task of burning salt and soaked with brine, I have become a fisherwoman whose boat has drifted off, and my sleeves are wet with tears.
Commentary: 17 The Fisherman's Little Boat

After his moonlit visit, the prince had come to think Izumi Shikibu a woman worth knowing, a consolation for idle days. But some people told him, "These days the Minamoto Junior Captain and others are visiting her. He is said to call even in daytime," and another added, "The Minister of Military Affairs goes there too," so the prince thought her very fickle and wrote nothing for a long time. The page boy came to her house and chatted as usual with her privy maid; when the maid asked whether he had brought a letter, he said, "No. The other day he came, but he saw a carriage at the gate, so I suppose there will be no word. He seems to have heard that men visit here," and left. Hearing this, Izumi Shikibu was deeply hurt. She had not relied on the prince in any special way, but she had meant to keep writing to him as long as he thought of her now and then, and now, of all things, he had come to think this of her over something so shameful.
The woman is Izumi Shikibu, daughter of Ōe no Masamune and, as the wife of Tachibana no Michisada, Governor of Izumi, mother of Koshikibu no Naishi. The Prince of the Dazaifu is Prince Atsumichi, fourth son of Emperor Reizei, so called because he served as Governor-General of the Dazaifu. The Minamoto Junior Captain refers to a junior captain of the Palace Guards of the Minamoto clan, and the Minister of Military Affairs to the head of that ministry.
When the prince's letter, saying he had been unwell and that every visit had come at a bad moment, arrived with "Yoshi ya yoshi ima wa uramiji iso ni idete kogihanareyuku ama no obune o," she felt ashamed, thinking he must have heard dreadful rumors, and though answering might seem brazen, she resolved to reply this once with this poem.
Meanwhile the seventh month arrived. On the day of the Tanabata festival many men sent her poems, but she paid them no attention, thinking that on such occasions the prince had always written, and wondering whether he had forgotten her entirely, when a letter came from him.

The opening lines mean "at the Bay of Sleeves, thinking it simply my own task to burn," where the Bay of Sleeves, a famous place in Dewa, stands for her tear-soaked sleeves, and "yaku" means both burning salt and one's own role. The third line, "drenched with brine," is an image of being wet with tears.
The lower verses mean "I have become a fisherwoman whose boat has drifted away," sealed by an emphatic construction. Taking up his "little fisher's boat," she retorts that she is not the boat that rowed away but the fisherwoman bewildered at losing the boat she relied on. Linking bay, salt-burning, brine, boat and fisher as associated sea words, she turns his metaphor against him to voice her grief.
Author: Izumi Shikibu
Source: Izumi Shikibu Nikki
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