By the well-curb
of the round well we once stood—
my childish height
has surely grown beyond it
while I have not seen you.

Meaning

By the well-curb of the round well where we once stood, my childish height has surely grown beyond it while I have not seen you.

Commentary

Episode Twenty-Three: "By the well-curb"

Long ago, children of those who had gone out to the provinces to earn their living played together by a well they shared. As they grew older, both the boy and the girl became shy and no longer played together.
Yet the boy wished to make the girl his wife, and the girl likewise continued to think of him as her husband. Her parents tried to marry her to another man, but she firmly refused.

This poem was composed by the man and sent to the woman.
It conveys that in the time they have not met, he too has grown tall, and expresses his wish to see her again.

Source

Ise Monogatari

Other

If autumn nights— a thousand of them— be counted as one, and we should lie through eight thousand nights, would there ever come a time of weariness?
Though autumn nights— a thousand of them— be made into one, still would words remain, and the cock perhaps would crow.
The parted hair we once compared in length has passed my shoulders— if not you, then who shall raise it up for me?
When the wind blows, white waves rise offshore— so on Tatsuta Mountain, in the midnight hours, are you crossing it alone?

By the well-curb of the round well we once stood— my childish height has surely grown beyond it while I have not seen you.

By the well-curb
of the round well we once stood—
my childish height
has surely grown beyond it
while I have not seen you.