Sugiita mote fukeru itama no awazaraba ika ni semu to ka waga nesomeken - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

杉板もて葺ける板間のあはざらば
いかにせむとか我が寝そめけん

Roma-ji: Sugiita mote fukeru itama no awazaraba ika ni semu to ka waga nesomeken
English Translation: Like a roof of boards
of cedar, should the gaps between
the planks no longer meet,
what did I think I would do
when I first lay down with you?
Meaning: If, like the boards of a roof thatched with cedar planks, we should no longer meet, what did I mean to do when I first began to lie with you?
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 746

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
The poem asks what the poet meant to do, when he first began to lie with the beloved, should they cease to meet, like the planks of a cedar-board roof that no longer fit together. Pivoting "awa" on boards "fitting" and lovers "meeting," it lays the anxiety of not meeting over the gaps in the roof boards. A similar poem in the Man'yōshū also asks what one would do if the boards of a roof thatched with fine wood failed to meet.
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.

First line, "sugiita mote," means "with cedar boards," a hypermetric line of six syllables.
Second line, "fukeru itama no," means "the gaps between the roofing boards," with "ru" the attributive form of the auxiliary "ri" of continuing state. Up to here the lines form a preface leading to "awa" in the third line.
Third line, "awazaraba," is a pivot word: "awa" means boards "fitting" and lovers "meeting," giving "if we should not meet."
Fourth line, "ika ni semu to ka," means "what did I mean to do," with the binding particle "ka" resolved by the attributive "ken" in the final line.
Final line, "waga nesomeken," means "when I began to lie with you," with "somu" meaning to begin and "ken" an auxiliary conjecturing a past cause.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Shui Wakashu
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