[51] かく (Kaku)

 Poem Meaning and Background

Woodblock print of a woman undergoing moxibustion treatment, print by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

©️ The British Museum

かくとだに・えやはいぶきの・さしもぐさ

kaku to dani・eyawa ibuki no・sashimogusa

さしもしらじな・もゆるおもひを

sashimo shiraji na・moyuru omoi o

〜藤原実方朝臣（Fujiwara no Sanekata Ason）

Translation

How can I tell her

How fierce my love for her is?

Will she understand

That the love I feel for her

Burns like Ibuki's fire plant?

Meaning

A smoldering, untold passion: though the author cannot tell his feelings to the one he loves, here he expresses it beautifully by comparing it to a burning plant. In the poem, the author talks about さしも草(sashimogusa), which is a plant known as mugwort or moxa in English, and it is burned as a treatment for various ailments in traditional Chinese and Japanese medicine. The process of "moxibustion" treatment and the origins of the term "moxa" can be read about on the Wikipedia, but essentially it involves burning the dried plant close to a person's skin, or sometimes directly on the skin until the skin blisters and scars. The author's metaphor mixes senses of heat, fire, and perhaps some pain along with the searing passion that consumes him. 

In the second line of the first half, えやはいふ means something along the lines of "Can I express my love? No, I cannot". Here, the いふ has a double meaning of いう（to say), and いぶき、which is a reference to Mt. Ibuki in Shiga Prefecture, a place that is was known for producing the mugwort. The term for moxibustion (burning the plant as a treatment) is called お灸（okyuu) and the plant itself is also called よもぎ in Japanese, though here the author refers to it as さしも草(sashimogusa). In the first line of the second half, さしも知らじな（sashimo shiraji na) means "indeed, [she] does not know". This differs slightly from the above English translation, so a more direct interpretation of the poem may look something like "Since I cannot tell her/ there is no way that she could know/ of my feelings for her which burn/ like the fire plants of Mt. Ibuki".

I find the sounds of this poem particularly pleasing, with the repetition of sashimo in the end of the first half and beginning of the second half. The ending of もゆるおもいを（moyuru omoi o; this burning passion), repeats the vowel sounds o and u several times, giving it a deep resonance that to me feels like a deep sigh, or moan, as if it is voicing the inner pain of the author. 

Author

A depiction of the author and
his poem by the artist Agameishi

Fujiwara no Sanekata (birth date unknown ~ 998) was a poet in the mid-Heian period and served Emperor Ichijō. He is revered by some as a "god of poetry", and is often listed along other great poets like Ariwara no Narihira, author of poem [17] Chiha. He was also a skilled author of love poems, and is well known for having had many romances, including a possible romance with Sei Shonagon, author of [62]よを.