Tarachine no haha ni sawaraba itazura ni imashi mo are mo koto narubeshi ya

たらちねの母に障らばいたづらに
汝も我れも事なるべしや

Roma-ji: Tarachine no haha ni sawaraba itazura ni imashi mo are mo koto narubeshi ya
English Translation: If by your mother,
milk-bestowing, we are blocked,
all in vain, would then
either you or I, my love,
ever see our hopes fulfilled?
Meaning: If we let your mother stand in our way, would anything ever come of it for you or for me? No, it would all be in vain.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2517

Headnote: "Expressing One's Feelings Directly"
The speaker urges the other: if we give way to your mother's opposition, it will all be in vain, and neither you nor I will see our love fulfilled. A mother who watches over her daughter's love appears often in the love poems of the Man'yoshu, and this poem frankly states a strong wish to overcome that obstacle and see love through.
The headnote "Expressing One's Feelings Directly" names a category of poems that state the heart's thoughts openly without speaking through objects. With this poem the anonymous poems expressing feelings directly begin, and after the Hitomaro Collection come the love poems of people whose names are not recorded. Poem 2368, placed first among the Hitomaro Collection's poems of this category, also begins with "tarachine no haha," so the openings of both sections are poems about a mother.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather love poems by people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "tarachine no": a pillow word attached to "mother." Calling up the mother, it presents at the outset the one who stands in love's way.
Second line, "haha ni sawaraba": "if we are hindered by your mother." "Sawara" is the irrealis form of the verb "sawaru," and with "ba" it sets a hypothetical condition.
Third line, "itazura ni": "in vain, to no purpose," describing the fruitless end that would follow if they gave in to the mother's opposition.
Fourth line, "imashi mo are mo": "both you and I." "Imashi" is a familiar word for the person addressed, and naming both shows that love is a matter for the two of them.
Fifth line, "koto narubeshi ya": "would it come to pass? No." The auxiliary "beshi" with "ya" forms a rhetorical question, strengthening the resolve not to yield to the obstacle.
Source: Manyoshu
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