Akiyama ni shimo furiōi ko no ha chiri toshi wa yuku tomo ware wasureme ya

秋山に霜降り覆ひ木の葉散り
年は行くとも我れ忘れめや

Roma-ji: Akiyama ni shimo furiōi ko no ha chiri toshi wa yuku tomo ware wasureme ya
English Translation: On the autumn hills
frost comes down and covers all,
leaves of trees fall away,
and though the year should pass on,
could I ever forget you?
Meaning: Frost falls and covers the autumn mountains, the leaves scatter, and though the year may pass, how could I ever forget?
Commentary: Book Ten Autumn Love Poems 2243

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Autumn Love Poems"
This poem vows that even as frost covers the autumn mountains, leaves fall, and the year passes, the speaker will never forget the beloved, and it closes the Hitomaro Collection's autumn love group. Layering the turning of the seasons and the passing of years, it strongly shows through a rhetorical question a love that does not change. Frost and falling leaves, the late autumn emblems sung in the miscellaneous poems, become the background setting off an unchanging heart.
Kakinomoto no Hitomaro was a court poet of the Asuka period, active under Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu. The left note records that this poem comes from the Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Collection, and it is uncertain whether it is Hitomaro's own work or a poem by someone else that he recorded.

The first line, "on the autumn mountains," names the place.
The second line, "frost falls and covers," describes the scene.
The third line, "the leaves fall," layers late autumn emblems in the upper lines.
In the fourth line, "toshi wa yuku tomo," "tomo" marks a concessive supposition: though the year passes.
In the last line, "ware wasureme ya," "me ya" is rhetorical: would I forget? never. It closes with a strong assertion of unchanging love.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Manyoshu
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