Wagimoko ni awazu hisashi mo umashi mono abetachibana no koke musu made ni

我妹子に逢はず久しもうましもの
安倍橘の苔生すまでに

Roma-ji: Wagimoko ni awazu hisashi mo umashi mono abetachibana no koke musu made ni
English Translation: How long it has been
since I have met my dear one,
so long the fine tree,
the Abe orange, has had time
to grow its mantle of moss
Meaning: How long it has been since I last met my beloved, long enough for moss to grow on the fine Abe orange tree.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2750

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
This love poem laments a long separation from the beloved, exaggerating it as time enough for moss to grow on an orange tree. The long passage of time until moss appears makes the length of days without meeting strikingly vivid.
It is a poem "Expressing Feelings through Things" that speaks through the Abe orange tree; here the sequence moves from boats and things of the shore to poems tied to plants and trees. Poem 2753, a little later, also sings of long days without meeting in "hisashiku narinu kimi ni awazu shite," treating the same theme through a beach hisagi tree.
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, "wagimoko ni": "to my beloved." "Wagimoko" is an affectionate term a man used for his sweetheart or wife.
Second line, "awazu hisashi mo": "long it has been without meeting." "Mo" is an exclamatory particle, and the poem breaks here, in inverted order with the lines that follow.
Third line, "umashi mono": "a fine, lovely thing," words of praise for the Abe orange in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "abetachibana no": "of the Abe orange tree," a kind of citrus. An evergreen that flourishes long, it suggests the passing of many years.
Fifth line, "koke musu made ni": "until moss grows." It speaks of a span long enough for moss to cover the orange tree, answering "hisashi mo" in the second line and exaggerating the length of separation.
Source: Manyoshu
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