Had I but known it would burn without a trace,
The fur robe,
I would have set it aside and only looked.

Meaning

Had I known it would burn away without a trace, I would not have cast the fur robe into the fire but only looked on. (Because I did not know it was a counterfeit, I feared it might be genuine and tested it by fire.)

Commentary

The Right Minister Abe no Mimuraji brought what was said to be “the Fire-Rat’s Fur Robe,” set as the condition for marriage with Princess Kaguya, but it was uncertain whether it was genuine. If it were truly the Fire-Rat’s Fur Robe, it should never burn; so, to test it, he actually cast it into the fire—and it flared up and burned.

This poem is Princess Kaguya’s reply to: “With boundless longing, the fur robe burned not; / The sleeves, once wet, are now dried— / Today at last I will wear it.”

Source

Taketori Monogatari

Other

Though idly I would cast my life away, Had I not plucked the jeweled branch, I would not have returned.
With boundless longing, the fur robe burned not; The sleeves, once wet, are now dried— Today at last I will wear it.
Of Kure bamboo, through generations, the bamboo cutter— though in fields and hills, we saw not only such bitter turns.
My sleeves today are dried; so of wretchedness, the thousand kinds will surely be forgotten.

Had I but known it would burn without a trace, The fur robe, I would have set it aside and only looked.

Had I but known it would burn without a trace,
The fur robe,
I would have set it aside and only looked.