Aimite wa chitose ya inuru ina o ka mo ware ya shika omou kimi machikate ni

相見ては千年やいぬるいなをかも
我れやしか思ふ君待ちかてに

Roma-ji: Aimite wa chitose ya inuru ina o ka mo ware ya shika omou kimi machikate ni
English Translation: Since we met, have years,
a thousand years, passed away?
Or is it not so,
is it only I who think so,
unable to wait for you?
Meaning: Have a thousand years gone by since we met? Or not? Is it only I who feel so, unable to bear waiting for you?
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2539

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing One's Feelings Directly"
Have a thousand years passed since we met, or does it only seem so to me as I wait? Asking and answering herself again and again, the speaker sings of how long the waiting feels. The restless tone of repeated questions itself conveys an impatience that makes a few days seem a thousand years.
Poem 2528 in this book calls the nights apart "a thousand nights," while this poem calls the time apart "a thousand years." One exaggerates the length of separation by counting nights, the other by counting years, treating the same feeling on different scales.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather love poems by people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "aimite wa": "since we met."
Second line, "chitose ya inuru": "have a thousand years passed?" The particle "ya" marks a question and is resolved by the attributive "inuru," and the poem pauses here.
Third line, "ina o ka mo": "or is it not so?" The negating "ina" with particles answers the preceding question with a denial.
Fourth line, "ware ya shika omou": "is it only I who think so?" The "ya" of question is resolved by the attributive "omou," and the poem pauses again.
Fifth line, "kimi machikate ni": "unable to wait for you." "Kate ni" means "unable to," and in inverted order it gives at the end the reason for the repeated questions.
Source: Manyoshu
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