Ima komu to chigirishi koto wa yume nagara mishi yo ni nitaru ariake no tsuki - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

今来むと契りしことは夢ながら
見し夜に似たる有明の月

Roma-ji: Ima komu to chigirishi koto wa yume nagara mishi yo ni nitaru ariake no tsuki
English Translation: "I'll come soon," you said,
but the vow has turned to dream,
and yet all the same
like the night we met, there hangs
the moon lingering at dawn.
Meaning: Your promise that you would come soon has faded like a dream, yet the moon lingering at dawn looks just as it did on the night we met.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems IV 1276

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "For the Poetry Contest in Fifteen Hundred Rounds."
This is the twenty-first poem of the sequence of love poems on the moon. The promise to come soon has vanished like a dream, the speaker says, yet the dawn moon alone resembles the night we met. Continuing from the preceding poem, it was submitted to the Poetry Contest in Fifteen Hundred Rounds.
The author, "Michitomo, Commander of the Right Gate Guards," is Minamoto no Michitomo. A son of the Palace Minister Minamoto no Michichika and elder brother of Minamoto no Michiteru, he was one of the compilers of the Shinkokinshū; Commander of the Right Gate Guards was his office when the collection was compiled.
The foundation poem is Sosei's poem in Love Poems IV of the Kokinshū, "Just because you said, 'I'll come soon,' I waited until the dawn moon of the Long Month came out."

The first line, "ima komu to," is the same as the first line of the foundation poem: "I'll come soon." Emperor Murakami's poem, 1247, also begins with the same line.
The second line, "chigirishi koto wa," means "what you vowed." It recasts the foundation poem's "iishi bakari ni," "just because you said," with the weightier word "vow."
The third line, "yume nagara," means "remaining a dream, as fleeting as a dream." It shows that the promise never became real.
The fourth line, "mishi yo ni nitaru," means "like the night we met." "Miru" refers to lovers meeting. The promise became a dream, but the moon alone is the same as on that night of meeting.
The last line, "ariake no tsuki," takes up the foundation poem's "ariake no tsuki" and ends on a noun. In the foundation poem the speaker trusted the promise and waited until the dawn moon; here the waiting itself has ended in a dream, and the remaining moon recalls the night of meeting.
Author: Minamoto no Michitomo
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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