Kozo miteshi aki no tsukuyo wa teraseredo aimishi imo wa iya toshisakaru

去年見てし秋の月夜は照らせれど
相見し妹はいや年離る

Roma-ji: Kozo miteshi aki no tsukuyo wa teraseredo aimishi imo wa iya toshisakaru
English Translation: The autumn moon
that we looked upon last year
shines on as before,
but she who gazed on it with me
grows ever farther with the years.
Meaning: The autumn moon we saw last year shines just as before, yet she who watched it with me drifts ever farther away as the years go by.
Commentary: Book Two Elegies 211

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems composed by Kakinomoto no Asomi Hitomaro, weeping tears of blood in grief, after the death of his wife, two short poems"
The autumn moon the two of them watched last year still shines unchanged, while the wife who watched it with him grows more distant with each year; the poem sets unchanging nature against the one who is lost.
These elegies, composed by Hitomaro after his wife's death in grief so deep that he wept tears of blood, are known as the poems of tearful lament. Two short poems are appended to each of two long poems, and a long poem with three short poems from another text is recorded as well. The first long poem, 207, mourns a wife in Karu whom he had loved in secret; the second, 210, mourns a wife who died leaving a small child. This is the first of the two short poems appended to 210. A version from another text, with the third line "wataredomo," appears as 214.
The author, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, was a court poet active in the reigns of Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu. A master of the long poem and the elegy, he is the representative poet of the Man'yōshū and was later revered as the Saint of Poetry.

In the first line, "kozo miteshi," te is perfective and shi the attributive of the past ki: that we saw last year.
In the second line, "aki no tsukuyo wa," tsukuyo means the moon: the autumn moon.
In the third line, "teraseredo," ri is stative and do concessive: though it shines still.
The fourth line, "aimishi imo wa," means "my wife who saw it with me."
In the final line, "iya toshisakaru," iya means "ever more": she grows more distant year by year. The contrast of the unchanging moon and the receding wife deepens the grief.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Manyoshu
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