Takasago no matsu to iitsutsu toshi o hete kawaranu iro to kikaba tanomamu - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

高砂のまつと言ひつつ年を経て
変はらぬ色と聞かば頼まむ

Roma-ji: Takasago no matsu to iitsutsu toshi o hete kawaranu iro to kikaba tanomamu
English Translation: "Like Takasago's pine,
I wait," so you keep saying
as the years go by—
if I hear its hue has not changed,
then I will place my trust
Meaning: You keep saying you wait like the pine of Takasago as the years go by. If I hear that your color, like the pine's, has never changed, then I will trust you.
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems IV 864

Headnote: "When a man sent a woman the words 'kaku shitsutsu yo o ya tsukusamu takasago no.'"
The poet says that if she hears that the one who keeps saying he waits like the pine of Takasago, year after year, has an unchanging color, she will trust him. To a man protesting that he will end his life only waiting, she answers with a condition: if his heart is truly unchanging, she will believe him.
According to the headnote, the poem was composed when a man sent the woman the upper verse of an anonymous poem in the Miscellaneous section of the Kokin Wakashū, "kaku shitsutsu yo o ya tsukusamu takasago no onoe ni tateru matsu naranaku ni." It replies by taking up "takasago no" and the pine of the poem he quoted.
The poet is listed as anonymous, and the composer's name has not come down to us.

The first line, "Takasago no," means "of Takasago," a famous poetic place in Harima, taking up the third line of the Kokin Wakashū poem the man quoted. 834 in this book also opens with "takasago no."
The second line, "matsu to iitsutsu," means "while saying you wait," with "matsu" meaning both "pine" and "to wait."
The third line, "toshi o hete," means "passing the years."
The fourth line, "kawaranu iro to," means "that its color does not change," layering an unchanging heart over the color of the evergreen pine.
The last line, "kikaba tanomamu," means "if I hear so, I will trust you," with "mu" expressing intention.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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