Kimi ga me o mimaku horishite kono futayo chitose no goto mo a wa kouru kamo

君が目を見まく欲りしてこの二夜
千年のごとも我は恋ふるかも

Roma-ji: Kimi ga me o mimaku horishite kono futayo chitose no goto mo a wa kouru kamo
English Translation: Longing to behold
your eyes, I have spent these two
nights, and through them both,
as if they were a thousand years,
I have gone on loving you
Meaning: Longing to see your eyes, I have spent these two nights loving you as if they were a thousand years.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2381

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing One's Feelings Directly"
The two nights spent longing to meet the beloved have felt as long as a thousand years: so the poem says. By the exaggeration of likening a mere two nights to a thousand years, it conveys how long the time apart feels and how strong the longing is.
The headnote continues from the preceding poem, "Expressing One's Feelings Directly." The phrase "chitose no goto mo" is also used in poem 2387. Here the speaker laments two nights apart that feel like a thousand years, while in poem 2387 the speaker wishes that one day spent together might last a thousand years, so that the same phrase carries opposite feelings.
The author is unknown; according to the left note, the poem comes from the Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection. That collection is thought to contain both Hitomaro's own poems and poems by others that he recorded. Kakinomoto no Hitomaro was a court poet active in the reigns of Empress Jito and Emperor Monmu, and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "kimi ga me o": "your eyes." "Kimi ga me" means seeing the beloved's face, that is, meeting, and echoes "kimi ga me sura o" in poem 2369.
Second line, "mimaku horishite": "longing to see." "Mimaku" is the verb "miru" with the nominalized form of the conjectural "mu," meaning "to try to see."
Third line, "kono futayo": "these two nights." It specifies the number of nights spent without meeting.
Fourth line, "chitose no goto mo": "as if a thousand years." An exaggeration set against the "two nights" of the third line.
Fifth line, "a wa kouru kamo": "how I long for you." The particle "kamo" closes the poem with deep feeling.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection
Source: Manyoshu
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