Ima komu to tanometsutsu furu koto no ha zo tokiwa ni miyuru momiji narikeru - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

今来むと頼めつつふる言の葉ぞ
常磐に見ゆる紅葉なりける

Roma-ji: Ima komu to tanometsutsu furu koto no ha zo tokiwa ni miyuru momiji narikeru
English Translation: "I'll come soon," you said,
keeping me in hope as time
passed, and those old words
are the leaves of autumn that
stay evergreen, never changed.
Meaning: "I will come soon," you promised, keeping me in hope while the months went by; those words of yours, grown old yet unchanged, are the autumn leaves that stay forever green.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 1247

Headnote: "Reply."
This is the seventh poem of the sequence lamenting estrangement through images of autumn and winter, a reply to the preceding poem. Your words, which kept me in hope that you would come soon while the months passed, he answers, are the autumn leaves that never change their color.
The author, "Tenryaku Poem," is Emperor Murakami. A son of Emperor Daigo, his reign was praised as the Tenryaku era of good government, alongside his father's Engi era. Tenryaku is an era name of his reign, and "Tenryaku Poem" means a poem composed by Emperor Murakami.

The first line, "ima komu to," means "saying I will come soon," referring to her promise, noted in the preceding headnote, to return when spring came.
In the second line, "tanometsutsu furu," "tanome" is in its causative sense: "making me rely on it." "Furu" is a pivot word meaning both time "passing" and words "growing old."
The third line, "koto no ha zo," likens words to leaves, linking them to the "autumn leaves" of the last line. "Zo" is answered by "keru" in the last line.
The fourth line, "tokiwa ni miyuru," means "seeming forever unchanged in color." Though autumn leaves by nature change color, the words of her promise alone never change and remain unfulfilled; the line carries a gentle irony.
The last line, "momiji narikeru," means "are the autumn leaves after all." Taking up "momiji o zo miru," the last line of the preceding poem, he likens the maple leaves she attached to the words of her unkept promise. Where Ise lamented in 1241 that "leaves of words fade," here the leaves of words appear evergreen; with this reversal, the exchange closes the sequence on autumn and winter imagery.
Author: Emperor Murakami
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
Prev Poem: Kasumuramu hodo o mo shirazu shiguretsutsu suginishi aki no momiji o zo miru
Next Poem: Tamaboko no michi wa haruka ni aranedomo utate kumoi ni madou koro kana