Tamahoko no michi yukazu araba nemokoro no kakaru koi ni wa awazaramashi o

玉桙の道行かずあらばねもころの
かかる恋には逢はざらましを

Roma-ji: Tamahoko no michi yukazu araba nemokoro no kakaru koi ni wa awazaramashi o
English Translation: Had I not set foot
on the jewel-spear-lined road,
then so deep a love,
so tender a love as this,
I would never have come to meet
Meaning: Had I not gone along that road, I would never have met with a love so tender and so deep as this.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2393

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing One's Feelings Directly"
If he had not taken that road, he would never have met with a love so devoted; the poem looks back on the beginning of a love for someone met along the way. While taking the form of regret for the encounter, it expresses how deep the love has become.
Like the preceding poem's "better never to have seen you," it imagines through the counterfactual a case in which love was never met, and the two poems are placed together as sharing the same idea. Catching sight of someone on the road also connects with "the girl who appeared faintly and was gone" in the next poem and with "the one I chanced to see" in poem 2396.
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, "tamahoko no": a pillow word attached to "road." Tamahoko is said to mean a fine spear, and is sometimes linked to spears set up at crossroads.
Second line, "michi yukazu araba": "had I not gone along the road." "Zu araba" is the negative with the hypothetical "ba," and it answers "mashi" in the last line to form a counterfactual.
Third line, "nemokoro no": "heartfelt, tender," expressing the fine and deep feeling of love.
Fourth line, "kakaru koi ni wa": "in a love such as this." The particle "wa" sets the present love apart from all others.
Fifth line, "awazaramashi o": "I would not have met with it." The counterfactual "mashi" with the concessive "o" closes the poem, leaving a lingering sense that nothing can now be undone.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
Source: Manyoshu
Prev Poem: Nakanaka ni mizu aramashi o aimite yu kohoshiki kokoro mashite omōyu
Next Poem: Asakage ni aga mi wa narinu tamakakiru honoka ni miete inishi ko yue ni