Imo ga me no mimaku hoshikeku yūyami no ko no ha gomoreru tsuki matsu gotoshi

妹が目の見まく欲しけく夕闇の
木の葉隠れる月待つごとし

Roma-ji: Imo ga me no mimaku hoshikeku yūyami no ko no ha gomoreru tsuki matsu gotoshi
English Translation: How I long to see
the eyes of my beloved:
it is like waiting
in the dusk for the moon still
hidden among the tree leaves
Meaning: My longing to see my beloved is like waiting in the evening dark for the moon hidden behind the leaves of the trees.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2666

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
The poem likens the speaker's longing to see his beloved to waiting, in the evening dark, for a moon that stays hidden behind the leaves. The frustration of a moon almost but not quite visible matches well the ache of a love that cannot meet.
This is one of the poems on the moon: the upper verse states the feeling and the lower verse compares it to the moon. The motif of waiting for the moon leads on to the next poem, 2667, in which the moon sinks while the speaker waits for a lover.
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, "imo ga me no": "my beloved's eyes," that is, her presence or meeting her. In Man'yoshu love poems "me" often stands for a meeting.
Second line, "mimaku hoshikeku": "my wish to see." "Mimaku" is the nominalized form of "mimu," and "hoshikeku" that of the adjective "hoshi," bundling the feeling into a noun-like phrase.
Third line, "yūyami no": the darkness of evening, long before the moon rises. It marks the hour of waiting and sharpens the impatience.
Fourth line, "ko no ha gomoreru": "hidden among the leaves." "Ru" is the attributive form of the continuative auxiliary "ri," showing the moon staying concealed in the foliage.
Fifth line, "tsuki matsu gotoshi": "it is like waiting for the moon." The comparative auxiliary "gotoshi" binds the whole poem into a simile.
Source: Manyoshu
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