Asukagawa shigarami watashi sekamaseba nagaruru mizu mo nodokekaramashi - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

明日香川しがらみ渡し塞かませば
流るる水ものどけからまし

Roma-ji: Asukagawa shigarami watashi sekamaseba nagaruru mizu mo nodokekaramashi
English Translation: The Asuka River—
had we laid a weir across
and held back its flow,
the waters as they ran
would have moved slow and calm.
Meaning: Had we laid a weir across the Asuka River and held back its current, even its flowing waters would have run calm and slow.
Commentary: Book Eight Miscellaneous Poems I 496

Headnote: "Composed at the burial of Princess Asuka"
The poet says that had a weir been laid across the Asuka River to hold back its flow, the running water would have moved gently. The headnote shows it is an elegy composed at the burial of Princess Asuka. Overlaying the princess's life, which could not be held back, on the river water that rushes away, he mourns her death. Following the two preceding poems on the Ise Priestess's journey, from 497 in this book onward come poems mourning death and age.
The author, written as Hitomaro, is Kakinomoto no Hitomaro. A court poet of the Asuka period, he is revered as the sage of poetry and the foremost poet of the Man'yōshū, and he is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets. The Shūishū includes many Man'yōshū poems under his name.
Book Two of the Man'yōshū includes a poem of nearly the same form as an envoy to the long poem Hitomaro composed at the temporary enshrinement of Princess Asuka.

First line, "Asukagawa," is the river flowing through Asuka in Yamato, overlapping with the princess's name, Asuka.
Second line, "shigarami watashi," means "laying a weir across."
Third line, "sekamaseba," means "had we held it back," with "mase" the irrealis form of the counterfactual "mashi," answering "mashi" in the final line.
Fourth line, "nagaruru mizu mo," means "even the flowing water," overlaid with the princess's life that has flowed away.
Final line, "nodokekaramashi," means "would have been calm," with "mashi" a counterfactual auxiliary. It conveys the sorrow that in truth it could not be held back.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Shui Wakashu
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