Kono tsuki no koko ni kitareba ima to kamo imo ga idetachi machitsutsu aru ramu

この月のここに来たれば今とかも
妹が出で立ち待ちつつあるらむ

Roma-ji: Kono tsuki no koko ni kitareba ima to kamo imo ga idetachi machitsutsu aru ramu
English Translation: Now that this moon
has come to stand over here,
thinking "It is time,"
my love must have stepped outside
and be standing there, waiting
Meaning: Now that the moon has come round to this point in the sky, my love must be thinking "It is time," and standing outside her door, waiting for me.
Commentary: Book Seven Miscellaneous Poems 1078

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On the Moon"
Seeing the moon reach a certain point in the sky, the poet imagines that his wife, knowing the appointed hour has come, has stepped outside to wait for him. Using the moon's progress like a clock to tell the time of a meeting gives the poem a touch of everyday life of that age.
Within the group on the moon, this is a poem of thinking of one's love through the moon, linking the moon and the beloved just as poem 1074 in this book does. The poet is unknown.

The first line, "Now that this moon," refers to the moon now hanging in the sky.
The second line, "has come to stand over here," is a conditional of fact (perfective form plus "ba"), showing that the poet knows the hour from the moon's position.
In the third line, "thinking 'It is time,'" the particle "ka" expresses doubt and is answered by "ramu" in the final line.
The fourth line, "my love must have stepped outside," calls up the image of her standing at the gate.
In the final line, "and be standing there, waiting," "ramu" expresses conjecture about the present and closes in the attributive form in response to "ka." The poet imagines his distant wife waiting even now.
Source: Manyoshu
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