Kimi hikazu narinamashikaba ayamegusa ikanaru ne o ka kyō wa kakemashi - Shika Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

君引かずなりなましかば菖蒲草
いかなるねをか今日はかけまし

Roma-ji: Kimi hikazu narinamashikaba ayamegusa ikanaru ne o ka kyō wa kakemashi
English Translation: Had you not pulled up
the sweet flag for me, then what
root, what weeping sound,
would I have found to hang up
on this festival day today
Meaning: Had you not pulled up the sweet flag for me, what root would I have hung up today — or what sound of weeping might I have made?
Commentary: Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems I 336

Thanking one who pulled up sweet flag and sent it for the Boys' Festival, the poet asks what root she would have hung today had they not done so. Playing "ne" as both root and the sound of weeping, she also implies that without such kindness she would have been in tears.
Like poem 330 of this book, it plays on "ne" as root and sound; together with poem 311, it makes three poems on sweet flag in this book.

The first line, "kimi hikazu" (had you not pulled), refers to the other pulling up the sweet flag.
The second line, "narinamashikaba," is a counterfactual condition with the perfective "nu," "mashika," the irrealis of "mashi," and "ba": had it been so.
The third line, "ayamegusa," names the sweet flag thatched into the eaves at the Tango festival, whose roots were also compared for length.
The fourth line, "ikanaru ne o ka," is a pivot word joining "ne" (root) and "ne" (weeping), posing a question with "ka." It is the same pivot word as "ne o oshimuramu" in poem 330.
The final line, "kyō wa kakemashi," closes "ka" with the attributive counterfactual "mashi," a kakari-musubi: what would I have hung today?
Source: Shika Wakashu
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