Ika ni ikaga kazoeyarubeki yachitose no amari hisashiki kimi ga miyo oba - Murasaki Shikibu Nikki(English Translation & Meaning)

いかにいかがかぞへやるべき八千歳の
あまり久しき君が御代をば

Roma-ji: Ika ni ikaga kazoeyarubeki yachitose no amari hisashiki kimi ga miyo oba
English Translation: How, oh how indeed,
on this fiftieth day, to count
the eight thousand years
and more of all the long, long reign
that lies before our young lord?
Meaning: On this fiftieth-day celebration, how could anyone ever count to the end the reign of our young prince, which will last eight thousand years and more?
Commentary: 22 The Fiftieth-Day Celebration

On the first day of the eleventh month of Kankō 5 (1008), the ceremony marking the fiftieth day since Prince Atsuhira's birth was held at the Tsuchimikado mansion. The ladies, dressed in their finest, gathered before the Empress, and Michinaga offered the infant prince the celebratory rice cake. As the banquet wore on, the nobles grew drunk and unruly: the Minister of the Right tore at the seams of a curtain screen, and the Intendant of the Left Gate Guards peered toward the ladies, asking, "Pardon me, but is young Murasaki about here?" Sensing the evening would turn frightfully drunken, Murasaki agreed with Lady Saishō to slip away as soon as the ceremony ended, and they hid behind the dais curtains. But Michinaga had the screens pulled away, caught them both and sat them down, saying, "Compose a poem for me, and I will let you go."
Lady Saishō was the daughter of Fujiwara no Michitsuna and served Empress Shōshi as a lady of high rank. The Intendant of the Left Gate Guards was Fujiwara no Kintō; his calling out for "young Murasaki" is considered the oldest record showing that The Tale of Genji was being read at court, and the first of the eleventh month was later designated Classics Day in Japan.
Pressed by Michinaga to compose a poem in exchange for her release, Murasaki, distressed and frightened, offered this one.
Michinaga murmured "Ah, well composed!" twice over and at once replied with "Ashitazu no yowai shi araba kimi ga yo no chitose no kazu mo kazoetoritemu." He then praised himself, asking whether the Empress had heard how well he had done, and joked that he was no poor father to her nor she a poor daughter to him. Rinshi, apparently finding this unseemly, left the room, and Michinaga hurried after her.

The opening lines form a rhetorical question, how could one possibly count it all, using an auxiliary of possibility. The doubled phrase "ika ni ikaga" conceals "ika," the fiftieth-day celebration itself, a fitting flash of wit for the occasion.
The lower verses, following "eight thousand years" in the third line, name the object to be counted, the young lord's reign, so long it exceeds eight thousand years. By placing that object last in an inverted order, the poem stresses the boundless length of his reign. Though demanded on the spot at a banquet, it gathers both the fiftieth-day rite and the wish for an everlasting reign into a model poem of celebration.
Author: Murasaki Shikibu
Source: Murasaki Shikibu Nikki
Prev Poem: Kotowari no shigure no sora wa kumoma aredo nagamuru sode zo kawaku ma mo naki
Next Poem: Ashitazu no yowai shi araba kimi ga yo no chitose no kazu mo kazoetoritemu