Tsuki shi areba akuramu waki mo shirazu shite nete wa ga koshi o hito mikemu kamo

月しあれば明くらむ別も知らずして
寝て我が来しを人見けむかも

Roma-ji: Tsuki shi areba akuramu waki mo shirazu shite nete wa ga koshi o hito mikemu kamo
English Translation: Because the moon shone
I could not tell if the night
had turned into dawn;
as I came home from our bed
could someone have seen me then
Meaning: Because the moon was shining, I could not tell whether dawn had come, and I came home after sleeping with you. Could someone have seen me?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2665

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
Because the moon shone so brightly that the speaker could not tell night from dawn, the lover overslept and came home late, and now fears being seen. The anxiety of a secret love is voiced plainly through the brightness of the moon.
This is one of the poems on the moon. Whereas the preceding poem speaks of the moonless darkness before dawn, this one speaks of a moon bright until morning, so the two set light against dark.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather love poems by people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "tsuki shi areba": "because the moon was out." The particle "shi" emphasizes the moon, and "ba" after the realis form expresses cause.
Second line, "akuramu waki mo": "even the distinction of whether dawn had come." The auxiliary "ramu" conveys uncertainty about whether it was already daybreak.
Third line, "shirazu shite": "not knowing." The brightness of the moon made the speaker lose track of the time to leave.
Fourth line, "nete wa ga koshi o": "that I came home after lying together." "Shi" in "koshi" is the attributive form of the past auxiliary "ki."
Fifth line, "hito mikemu kamo": "might someone have seen?" The conjectural past auxiliary "kemu" with the questioning, exclamatory "kamo" expresses the fear of having been noticed.
Source: Manyoshu
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