Itomanami kimasazu wa ware yukan fumi tsukururan michi o shirabaya - Izumi Shikibu Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

暇なみきまさすは我ゆかん
ふみつくるらん道をしらはや

Roma-ji: Itomanami kimasazu wa ware yukan fumi tsukururan michi o shirabaya
English Translation: If, lacking leisure,
you cannot come, then I shall go;
how I wish I knew
the road you tread, where you, they say,
are busy making verse
Meaning: If you have no time to come, then I will go to you; I wish I knew the road you tread, where they say you are composing verse.
Commentary: 41 Composing Chinese Verse

After their exchange about the first snow, Izumi Shikibu and the prince passed the days in light exchanges. Then a letter came from the prince: "We have grown so distant lately that I meant to come, but people are composing Chinese verse."
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.
In answer to his letter saying that a gathering for composing verse kept him away, Izumi Shikibu sent this poem.
The prince found it delightful and replied with "Waga yado ni tazunete kimase fumi tsukuru michi mo oshien ai mo mirubeku."

The first line means "since you have no leisure," with a suffix of cause. The second and third lines mean "if you do not come, I shall go," with an honorific verb for coming, a negative conditional and an auxiliary of will.
The lower verses mean "I wish I knew the road where you compose verse," where "fumi" means both Chinese writings and "treading" a road, ending in a particle of one's own wish. To a prince kept away by verse-making, she jokes that she will go to him instead, and through the wordplay on the "road" hints at the way to his residence, suggesting that her wish to go there has begun to take root.
Author: Izumi Shikibu
Source: Izumi Shikibu Nikki
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