Momijiba no chiriyuku nae ni tamazusa no tsukai o mireba aishi hi omoyu

黄葉の散りゆくなへに玉梓の
使を見れば逢ひし日思ほゆ

Roma-ji: Momijiba no chiriyuku nae ni tamazusa no tsukai o mireba aishi hi omoyu
English Translation: Just as the colored
leaves are scattering and falling,
when I see a messenger
bearing letters on his way,
I recall the days we met.
Meaning: Just as the colored leaves are falling, when I see a messenger bearing letters, I remember the days when she and I would meet.
Commentary: Book Two Elegies 209

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems composed by Kakinomoto no Asomi Hitomaro, weeping tears of blood in grief, after the death of his wife, two short poems"
In the season when the colored leaves fall, the sight of a messenger carrying letters brings back the days he used to meet his wife. The figure of the messenger who brought news of her death in the long poem is overlaid, and the falling leaves recall her death.
These elegies, composed by Hitomaro after his wife's death in grief so deep that he wept tears of blood, are known as the poems of tearful lament. Two short poems are appended to each of two long poems, and a long poem with three short poems from another text is recorded as well. The first long poem, 207, mourns a wife in Karu whom he had loved in secret; the second, 210, mourns a wife who died leaving a small child. This is the second of the two short poems appended to 207.
The author, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, was a court poet active in the reigns of Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu. A master of the long poem and the elegy, he is the representative poet of the Man'yōshū and was later revered as the Saint of Poetry.

The first line, "momijiba no," means "of the colored leaves."
In the second line, "chiriyuku nae ni," nae ni means "just as, at the same time": even as the leaves are falling.
The third line, "tamazusa no," is a pillow word for tsukai, "messenger."
The fourth line, "tsukai o mireba," means "when I see a messenger," recalling the messenger in the long poem 207 who brought word of his wife's death.
In the final line, "aishi hi omoyu," omoyu means to come to mind: the days when we met return to me.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Manyoshu
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