Hajime yori nagaku iitsutsu tanomezu wa kakaru omoi ni awamashi mono ka

初めより長く言ひつつ頼めずは
かかる思ひに逢はましものか

Roma-ji: Hajime yori nagaku iitsutsu tanomezu wa kakaru omoi ni awamashi mono ka
English Translation: From the very start,
had you not kept telling me
"always," and made me trust,
would I ever have been brought
to such misery as this
Meaning: Had you not promised me from the very beginning that it would last forever and made me trust you, would I ever have known such misery as this?
Commentary: Book Four Love Poems 620

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Envoy"
This is the envoy to Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue's long poem of resentment (619). Had he not made her trust him from the beginning by vowing it would last forever, she would not have known such pain; she reproaches his broken promise. Taking up the long poem's lament that after she gave her heart to one who swore a long future, both his visits and his messengers ceased, it sums up her resentment briefly.
The author, Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue, was a daughter of Ōtomo no Yasumaro and half-sister of Ōtomo no Tabito. She left many poems in the Man'yōshū and is esteemed as a leading woman poet.

First line, "From the very start," means from the beginning.
Second line, "had you not kept telling me," refers to his repeated vows of a long future.
Third line, "'always,' and made me trust," uses tanomu in its lower bigrade sense, "to make someone rely on," with zu wa: had you not made me trust you.
Fourth line, "would I ever have been brought," means to such a painful feeling.
Fifth line, "to such misery as this," uses the counterfactual mashi with the rhetorical mono ka: would I have met with it? Never.
Author: Lady Ōtomo no Sakanoue
Source: Manyoshu
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