Michitose ni naru chō momo no kotoshi yori hana saku haru ni ainikeru kana - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

三千年になるてふ桃の今年より
花咲く春に逢ひにけるかな

Roma-ji: Michitose ni naru chō momo no kotoshi yori hana saku haru ni ainikeru kana
English Translation: The peach that is said
to bear fruit once in three thousand
years, from this year on,
has met with the spring at last
when its blossoms open wide.
Meaning: The peach said to bear fruit once in three thousand years has, from this year on, met with the spring in which its blossoms open.
Commentary: Book Five Celebration Poems 288

Headnote: "At the poetry contest of the Teiji Palace"
The poet says that the immortal peach, said to bear fruit only once in three thousand years, has from this year met with the spring in which it blooms. Through the spring of peach blossoms he blesses the beginning of a supremely auspicious long life. According to the headnote, it was presented at the poetry contest held in the thirteenth year of Engi (913) at the Teiji Palace, residence of the Cloistered Emperor Uda.
The author, written as Mitsune, is Ōshikōchi no Mitsune. He was one of the compilers of the Kokinshū and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.
It draws on the story that the Queen Mother of the West presented Emperor Wu of Han with peaches that bear fruit once in three thousand years.

First line, "michitose ni," means "once in three thousand years."
Second line, "naru chō momo no," means "of the peach said to bear fruit," with "chō" a contraction of "to iu."
Third line, "kotoshi yori," means "from this year."
Fourth line, "hana saku haru ni," means "with the spring when blossoms open."
Final line, "ainikeru kana," means "how it has met," with "ni" perfective, "keru" the attributive of the past auxiliary "keri," and "kana" exclamatory. It widens the "thousand springs" of the two preceding poems to a still longer three thousand years.
Author: Oshikochi no Mitsune
Source: Shui Wakashu
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