Ika ni semu sue no matsuyama nami kosaba mine no hatsuyuki kie mo koso sure - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

いかにせむ末の松山波越さば
峰の初雪消えもこそすれ

Roma-ji: Ika ni semu sue no matsuyama nami kosaba mine no hatsuyuki kie mo koso sure
English Translation: What am I to do?
Should the waves come crashing over
Sue no Matsuyama,
the first snow on the peak
might melt away to nothing
Meaning: What am I to do? If the waves should cross over Sue no Matsuyama, the first snow on the peak might vanish.
Commentary: Book Four Winter Poems 284

The poet frets, wondering what to do, for if the waves should cross Sue no Matsuyama, the first snow lying on its peak might vanish. Naming the very pine hill that waves were said never to cross, the poem expresses tender regard for the white first snow on the peak.
It draws on an Azuma poem in the Kokinshū, in which a lover swears that should he ever be faithless, the waves would cross Sue no Matsuyama. The waves crossing the hill, there a figure for the impossible, are turned here to a fear for the first snow.
It continues the poems on the first snow after poems 279 and 280 in this book; where poem 279 likened the first snow to white waves, this poem fears the waves will wash it away.
Poems 277 through 293 in this book center on snow, with poems on falconry set among them at 281 through 283.
The author, Masafusa, is Ōe no Masafusa. A son of Ōe no Narihira, he rose to Provisional Middle Counselor. Known as the foremost scholar of his day, he was called Gōsotsu from his service as Provisional Governor-General of Dazaifu, and one of his poems appears in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.

First line, 'ika ni semu', means what am I to do, the volitional mu expressing uncertainty. The poem breaks after the first line.
Second line, 'sue no matsuyama', is a poetic place in Michinoku, a hill that waves were said never to cross.
Third line, 'nami kosaba', means should the waves cross, the irrealis with ba forming a supposition.
Fourth line, 'mine no hatsuyuki', is the first snow on the peak, sung like 'the first snow that has fallen' in poem 279 in this book.
Final line, 'kie mo koso sure', means it might vanish, mo koso expressing apprehension of something bad, koso binding with the realis sure.
Author: Oe no Masafusa
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
Prev Poem: Kotowari ya katano no ono ni naku kigisu sa koso wa kari no hito wa tsurakere
Next Poem: Furu yuki ni sugi no aoba mo uzumorete shirushi mo miezu miwa no yamamoto