Awamu yo wa itsu mo aramu o nani su to ka sono yoi aite koto no shigeki mo

逢はむ夜はいつもあらむを何すとか
その宵逢ひて言の繁きも

Roma-ji: Awamu yo wa itsu mo aramu o nani su to ka sono yoi aite koto no shigeki mo
English Translation: Nights for us to meet,
surely there'd be many more;
why then, why that night
did we meet, that now the talk
has grown so thick around us
Meaning: There would surely have been other nights to meet; why did we meet on that one night, that now the gossip is so thick?
Commentary: Book Four Love Poems 730

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Three poems sent by Ōtomo no Sakanoue no Ōiratsume to Ōtomo no Sukune Yakamochi"
There would have been other nights to meet, so why did they meet on that night, that gossip now runs so thick? she regrets. Like Yakamochi's poem 612, it uses the phrase nani su to ka, "why."
The author, Ōtomo no Sakanoue no Ōiratsume, was the daughter of Ōtomo no Sukunamaro and Lady Sakanoue, and later became Ōtomo no Yakamochi's principal wife.

First line, "Nights for us to meet," means nights when we might meet.
Second line, "surely there'd be many more," uses the concessive o: though there would always be such nights.
Third line, "why then, why that night," is the same as the third line of poem 612.
Fourth line, "did we meet, that now the talk," means meeting on that evening.
Fifth line, "has grown so thick around us," means how loud the talk is, with the exclamatory mo.
Author: Ōtomo no Sakanoue no Ōiratsume
Source: Manyoshu
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