Tama shikeru ie mo nani semu yaemugura ōeru koya mo imo to oriseba

玉敷ける家も何せむ八重葎
覆へる小屋も妹と居りせば

Roma-ji: Tama shikeru ie mo nani semu yaemugura ōeru koya mo imo to oriseba
English Translation: A house with jewels spread,
what use is it to me? A hut
thick with tangled creeping weeds
covering it all around would do,
if only I were there with you
Meaning: What use is a house strewn with jewels? Even a hut overgrown with tangled weeds would be enough, if only I could be there with you.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2825

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Questions and Answers"
What use is a fine house strewn with jewels? Even a rough hut overgrown with weeds would do, if only he could be with his beloved: so this poem answers. It voices plainly a man's feeling that being with the one he loves matters more than any fine dwelling.
By the left note "the two poems above," this is the answer paired with the preceding poem, 2824. It takes over that poem's "yaemugura," "ōeru," and "tama shik-" word for word, and tells the woman ashamed that she could not strew jewels that a run-down dwelling is no matter at all. Answering by using the question's own words with the opposite valuation is a typical shape of the exchange poem.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather the love poems of people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "tama shikeru": "strewn with jewels." "Ru" is the attributive form of the continuative "ri," taking up "tama shikamashi o" in the preceding poem.
Second line, "ie mo nani semu": "what use is a house?" "Nani semu" is rhetorical, dismissing such a house as useless, and the sense breaks off here after the second line.
Third line, "yaemugura": tangled weeds grown many layers deep, placed in the same position as in the preceding poem to answer it.
Fourth line, "ōeru koya mo": "even a hut they cover." Taking up "ōeru niwa ni" in the preceding poem, "mo" conveys that even so humble a dwelling would do.
Fifth line, "imo to oriseba": "if I were with you." "Seba," from the irrealis form of the past auxiliary "ki" plus "ba," states the condition; placing it last by inversion gives strong weight to being with the beloved.
Source: Manyoshu
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