Iwanu yori kokoro ya yukite shirube suru nagamuru kata o hito no tou made - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

言はぬより心や行きてしるべする
眺むる方を人の問ふまで

Roma-ji: Iwanu yori kokoro ya yukite shirube suru nagamuru kata o hito no tou made
English Translation: Before I could speak,
did my heart go on ahead
to be your guide,
so that you should come to ask
where it is my gaze is turned?
Meaning: Before I ever spoke, did my heart travel to you and lead the way, so that you have come to ask in which direction my gaze is turned?
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 1105

Headnote: "Reply."
This is the second poem of the sequence on "nagame," a reply to the preceding poem. He answers that his heart must have gone ahead of his words to guide her, since she has come to ask where his gaze is turned. According to the headnote, it is his reply to the poem from the woman's carriage.
The author, "Former Major Counselor Takafusa," is Fujiwara no Takafusa. The son of Provisional Major Counselor Fujiwara no Takasue, he rose to major counselor.
It takes up the word "shirube," guide, from the woman's reply in the Tales of Ise, episode 99, "Love alone is the guide," the story named as the "precedent" in the preceding poem.

The first line, "iwanu yori," means "before I said a word."
The second line, "kokoro ya yukite," means "did my heart go to you," the particle "ya" marking a question answered by the attributive "suru" in the third line.
The third line, "shirube suru," means "to act as guide." Taking up the woman's poem in the Tales of Ise, where love was called the "guide," he asks whether it was his heart that led the way.
The fourth line, "nagamuru kata o," means "the direction in which I gaze," taking up "nagame" from the preceding poem. To her opening, "nagame wa sore to shirinagara," he answers in terms of where his gaze is turned.
The last line, "hito no tou made," means "so that you should ask." Against "obotsukanaki wa kokoro narikeri" in the preceding poem, he turns it back: her very question shows that his heart has already reached her.
Author: Fujiwara no Takafusa
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
Prev Poem: Tameshi areba nagame wa sore to shirinagara obotsukanaki wa kokoro narikeri
Next Poem: Nagame wabi sore to wa nashi ni mono zo omou kumo no hatate no yūgure no sora