Au koto o machishi tsukihi no hodo yori mo kyō no kure koso hisashikarikere - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

逢ふことを待ちし月日のほどよりも
今日の暮れこそ久しかりけれ

Roma-ji: Au koto o machishi tsukihi no hodo yori mo kyō no kure koso hisashikarikere
English Translation: Longer than the months
and days through which I waited
for us two to meet,
it is this one day's waiting
for the dusk that seems so long.
Meaning: Longer than all the months and days I waited for us to meet seems this single day of waiting until evening.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 714

Headnote: "Sent the morning after first visiting a woman"
The poem says that this one day of waiting for evening, when the poet may see her again after the first meeting, feels longer than all the months and days he waited to meet her. The headnote shows it was a morning-after poem sent the morning after he first visited the woman. Comparing spans of different lengths, months and days against a single day, and calling the single day longer, it expresses a longing that grows all the stronger after the meeting. From here to 716, morning-after poems follow under the same headnote.
The author, written as "Yoshinobu," is Ōnakatomi no Yoshinobu. He served as chief priest of the Ise Shrine and, as one of the Five Men of the Pear Chamber, took part in compiling the Gosenshū. He is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "au koto o," means "for our meeting."
Second line, "machishi tsukihi no," means "of the months and days I waited," with "shi" the attributive form of the past auxiliary "ki." It is a long span set against the single day of the fourth line.
Third line, "hodo yori mo," means "than the length."
Fourth line, "kyō no kure koso," means "it is today's waiting till dusk," with the binding particle "koso" resolved by the perfective form "kere" in the final line. A man visited a woman at dusk. It shares the heart that waits for evening with the second line of 722 in this book, "kure o matsu ma no."
Final line, "hisashikarikere," means "that seems so long."
Author: Onakatomi no Yoshinobu
Source: Shui Wakashu
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