Words from nearly 1200 years ago

Last Friday while wandering around the Pike Place Market in Seattle, I spotted a small gold cherry blossom branch with Japanese characters embedded into the sidewalk on the corner of Pike and First Street. I snapped a photo and continued walking. Later this week I looked at the photo again, reading the words "I have always known that at last I would take this road but yesterday I did not know it would be today - Narihira."

Photo by Patrick Jones. Narihira poem, Seattle.

A Google search revealed this to be words written by Japanese poet Ariwara no Narihira, who lived from 825-880.