Masurao wa yamada no io ni oinikeri ima ikuchiyo ni awamu to suramu - Kinyo Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

ますらをは山田の庵に老いにけり
今幾千代にあはむとすらむ

Roma-ji: Masurao wa yamada no io ni oinikeri ima ikuchiyo ni awamu to suramu
English Translation: The stalwart man has
grown old within his hut
by the mountain field;
how many more thousand years
is it he intends to see
Meaning: The stalwart man has grown old in his hut beside the mountain field; how many more thousands of years does he mean to live to see?
Commentary: Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems I 531

The stalwart man has grown old in the hut by the mountain field, the poet says; how many more thousands of years does he intend to see? The image of a man grown old guarding a mountain field overlaps with one who has long served in the world, and the poem can be read both as a blessing of long life through many more reigns and as a reflection on old age.
Following the preceding poem, 530, which praised the age of the Sumiyoshi pine reaching back to the age of gods, this poem also sings of the long span of ikuchiyo, many thousand years. It also echoes ikuchiyo mo in the first line of poem 520 in this book.

First line, 'masurao wa', means the stalwart man, masurao being a fine or valiant man.
Second line, 'yamada no io ni', means in the hut where one guards the mountain field.
Third line, 'oinikeri', means has grown old, the perfective nu followed by the exclamatory keri; the poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, 'ima ikuchiyo ni', means for how many more thousands of years, echoing ikuchiyo mo in the first line of poem 520 in this book.
Final line, 'awamu to suramu', means does he intend to meet, the volitional mu with to su followed by the present conjectural ramu.
Source: Kinyo Wakashu
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