Kimi wa kozu tamatama miyuru warawa o ba ike tomo ima wa iwaji to omou ka - Izumi Shikibu Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

君はこす偶々みゆる童をは
いけとも今はいはしとおもふか

Roma-ji: Kimi wa kozu tamatama miyuru warawa o ba ike tomo ima wa iwaji to omou ka
English Translation: You do not come here,
and the boy, the one I see
now and then—will you
no longer tell him "Go!" nor "Live!"
Is that what you intend?
Meaning: You yourself never come; and now do you mean never again to tell the boy I see now and then either to go or to live?
Commentary: 27 Frosty Mornings and the Page Boy

On the night of their exchange about the arm-pillow sleeve, the moon also shone very bright and clear, and Izumi Shikibu and the prince each gazed at it until dawn in their separate places. The next morning the prince was having someone ask whether his usual page boy had come, meaning to send a letter. Meanwhile Izumi Shikibu, perhaps moved by the brilliant whiteness of the frost, sent a poem first. The prince was vexed at having been forestalled.
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 page boy was the youth who carried the prince's letters to her.
The prince's "Asahi sashi ima wa kiyubeki shimo naredo uchitokegataki sora no keshiki zo" arrived with his remark that he could kill the boy. Izumi Shikibu wrote, "So you really mean to kill him," and sent back this poem.
The prince burst out laughing and replied with "Kotowari ya ima wa korosaji kono warawa shinobi no tsuma no iu koto ni yori," adding, "But tell me, have you forgotten the arm-pillow sleeve?"

The first line, "you do not come," begins with a small reproach at the prince's rare visits. The second and third lines mean "the boy who appears now and then," showing that the boy alone comes in the prince's place.
The lower verses ask "do you mean never again to say 'ike'?" where "ike" means both "go," as an order to a messenger, and "live," as in sparing his life, with an auxiliary of negative will. Taking up his joke about killing the boy, she wittily pleads for the boy's life, weaving in her reproach that without the boy even his letters would cease.
Author: Izumi Shikibu
Source: Izumi Shikibu Nikki
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