Folding my fingers,
counting the times we met—
when I say ten,
ten and ten and ten and ten
have already passed.

Meaning

Folding my fingers and counting the years we have lived together, when I say ten, ten and ten and ten and ten have already passed.

Commentary

Episode Sixteen: "Folding the fingers"

A man named Ki no Aritsune, who had served three reigns, lost in political strife and fell into poverty, forced to live in hardship.
Accustomed to an elegant life, he knew little of the world’s common ways and suffered greatly.
At last, even the wife who had long shared his life became a nun and left him.

This poem was written at the end of a letter in which Aritsune described his circumstances to a friend.

Source

Ise Monogatari

Other

If you were a person like the Aneha pine of Kurihara, as a keepsake for the capital I would say, come, let us go.
On Shinobu Mountain, a hidden path for secret visits— would that there were one, that I might even see the depths of her heart.
If the years alone, saying ten, have passed four times, how many times has she relied on you, coming to you thus?
Is this indeed the robe of feathers of a heavenly maid? No wonder it was worn by one such as you.

Folding my fingers, counting the times we met— when I say ten, ten and ten and ten and ten have already passed.

Folding my fingers,
counting the times we met—
when I say ten,
ten and ten and ten and ten
have already passed.