Tarachine no haha ni mōsaba kimi mo are mo au to wa nashi ni toshi zo henu beki

たらちねの母に申さば君も我れも
逢ふとはなしに年ぞ経ぬべき

Roma-ji: Tarachine no haha ni mōsaba kimi mo are mo au to wa nashi ni toshi zo henu beki
English Translation: If to my mother,
milk-bestowing, I should speak,
both you and I, too,
without ever meeting once,
would see the years go by
Meaning: If I were to tell my mother, then surely both you and I would see the years pass by without ever meeting.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2557

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing One's Feelings Directly"
If the speaker told her mother about the two of them, the mother would surely object, and the years would pass with neither lover able to meet the other. Facing a mother who watches over her daughter's love, the woman agonizes, unable to confess.
In the love poems of the Man'yoshu the mother often appears as one who watches over and obstructs a daughter's love. "Tarachine no haha" is also found in poem 2368 at the head of Book Eleven; whereas that opening poem laments learning love after leaving the mother's hands, this poem laments hiding love for fear of the mother's eyes.
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."
Second line, "haha ni mōsaba": "if I should tell my mother." "Mōsa" is the irrealis form of the humble verb "mōsu," and "ba" makes a hypothetical condition.
Third line, "kimi mo are mo": "both you and I." With six syllables it exceeds the norm by one, and the repeated particle "mo" stresses that both alike would be kept from meeting.
Fourth line, "au to wa nashi ni": "without meeting." "Nashi ni" means "without doing," expressing time that passes without a meeting.
Fifth line, "toshi zo henu beki": "the years must surely pass." The particle "zo" is answered by "beki," the attributive form of the auxiliary "beshi," a kakari-musubi construction.
Source: Manyoshu
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