Kusa mo ki mo aki no sueba wa mieyuku ni tsuki koso iro mo kawarazarikere - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

草も木も秋の末葉は見えゆくに
月こそ色も変はらざりけれ

Roma-ji: Kusa mo ki mo aki no sueba wa mieyuku ni tsuki koso iro mo kawarazarikere
English Translation: On plants and trees alike
the leaf tips at autumn's end
show their change, and yet
the moon alone in its color
does not change at all
Meaning: Plants and trees alike show their leaf tips changing at autumn's end, yet the moon alone never changes its color.
Commentary: Book Five Autumn Poems II 335

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown"
Plants and trees alike, the poet says, show their leaves changing color and withering at autumn's end, yet the moon alone does not change in color. Contrasting the shifting plants of the earth with the unchanging moon of the heavens, she sets in relief the constancy of moonlight amid deepening autumn.
The author, "Shikishi Naishinnō," was a daughter of Emperor Go-Shirakawa. She served as Kamo Priestess and later took holy orders. She studied poetry under Fujiwara no Shunzei and is one of the leading women poets of the Shin Kokin age. A poem of hers is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
Together with the preceding poem, 334, it sings of the unchanging moon. It also shares the word "sueba" with 328 of this book, alike in seeing autumn's end in the color of leaf tips.

First line, "kusa mo ki mo": all the plants and trees of the earth, set against "tsuki," the moon, near the close.
Second line, "aki no sueba wa": "sueba" are the leaves at the tips of plants, also echoing "aki no sue," autumn's end. It uses the same word as "aki wa sueba no" in 328 of this book.
Third line, "mieyuku ni": "though their change grows ever more visible," with "ni" in a concessive sense.
Fourth line, "tsuki koso iro mo": the emphatic "koso" closes with the perfective form "kere" in the last line, setting plants against the moon, earth against heaven.
Fifth line, "kawarazarikere": "zari" is the negative "zu" and "kere" the perfective form of the realizational "keri," "it does not change." It echoes "the moon alone keeping autumn" in the preceding poem, 334.
Author: Princess Shokushi
Source: Senzai Wakashu
Prev Poem: Mushi no ne mo mare ni nariyuku Adashino ni hitori aki naru tsuki no kage kana
Next Poem: Sumu mizu ni sayakeki kage no utsureba ya koyoi no tsuki no na ni nagaruran