Koishinaba koi mo shine to ya tamahoko no michi yuku hito no koto mo tsugenaku

恋ひしなば恋ひも死ねとや玉桙の
道行く人の言も告げなく

Roma-ji: Koishinaba koi mo shine to ya tamahoko no michi yuku hito no koto mo tsugenaku
English Translation: If I die of love,
is it "die then, of your love"?
On the jeweled-spear
road, the people passing by
bring not even a word
Meaning: Is it that, if I am to die of love, I should simply die of it? The people passing along the road bring me not even a word from you.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2370

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing One's Feelings Directly"
The speaker cries out, "Am I told to die of love, if die I must?" and resents that no one passing on the road brings word from the beloved. Bitterness toward a lover who has fallen silent and a heart driven nearly to death by love are voiced in the forceful tone of a question.
The headnote continues from the preceding poem, "Expressing One's Feelings Directly." In this group in Book Eleven of the Man'yoshu, the phrase "tamahoko no michi" also appears in poem 2380; here the road is the one that should carry a message, while in poem 2380 it is the road by which the lover ought to come.
The author is unknown; according to the left note, the poem comes from the Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection. That collection is thought to contain both Hitomaro's own poems and poems by others that he recorded. Kakinomoto no Hitomaro was a court poet active in the reigns of Empress Jito and Emperor Monmu, and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "koishinaba": "if I die of love." "Naba" is the conditional form made of the perfective auxiliary "nu" plus the particle "ba."
Second line, "koi mo shine to ya": "am I told to die of love?" "Shine" is the imperative, and the particle "ya" marks a question. The poem pauses here, after the second line.
Third line, "tamahoko no": a pillow word attached to "road." One explanation takes it as a road where jeweled spears were set up.
Fourth line, "michi yuku hito no": "people walking along the road." The speaker had hoped that, by this road busy with travelers, the beloved's words would arrive.
Fifth line, "koto mo tsugenaku": "koto" means words, here a message from the beloved. "Tsugenaku" is the nominalized form of the negative "zu," trailing off with a sigh: "they do not even tell me."
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
Source: Manyoshu
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