Inishie no koto wa shiranu o ware mite mo hisashiku narinu ame no kaguyama

いにしへのことは知らぬを我れ見ても
久しくなりぬ天の香具山

Roma-ji: Inishie no koto wa shiranu o ware mite mo hisashiku narinu ame no kaguyama
English Translation: Of the distant past
I know nothing, yet even
since I first saw you
long indeed the years have grown,
Kagu, heavenly mountain
Meaning: I know nothing of the ancient past, yet even since I first looked upon you, how long it has been—Mount Kagu of heaven.
Commentary: Book Seven Miscellaneous Poems 1096

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "On Mountains"
Looking up at Mount Kagu, the poet reflects that though he knows nothing of the ancient age of the gods, many years have passed even since he first came to see it. The timelessness of the mountain is set against the span of a human life.
Within the group on mountains, it sings of Mount Kagu, one of the three mountains of Yamato. It can be seen as treating through a mountain the same theme as poem 1080 in this book, which set the moon's eternity against human years. The poet is unknown.

The first line, "Of the distant past," refers to ancient times.
In the second line, "I know nothing," the particle "o" is concessive: "though I do not know."
The third line, "since I first saw you," uses "mo" for emphasis: "even since I have been seeing it."
In the fourth line, "long indeed the years have grown," the perfective "nu" states the fact decisively, and the poem pauses here.
The final line ends with a noun, "Kagu, heavenly mountain." Mount Kagu, said in legend to have come down from heaven, is addressed as a sacred mountain with the epithet "of heaven."
Source: Manyoshu
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