Kaerikomu hodo o ba itsu to iiokaji sadame naki mi wa hitodanome nari - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

帰り来む程をばいつと言ひ置かじ
定めなき身は人頼めなり

Roma-ji: Kaerikomu hodo o ba itsu to iiokaji sadame naki mi wa hitodanome nari
English Translation: When I will come back
I shall not tell you,
nor leave you a day:
one whose fate is never fixed
would only raise false hopes
Meaning: I will not leave word of when I shall return. One whose fate is never certain would only give others false hope.
Commentary: Book Seven Parting Poems 482

Headnote: "Composed when, as I set out on ascetic practice, someone asked when I would be coming back"
Composed when, as he set out on a journey of ascetic practice, someone asked when he would return. I will not leave word of when I shall return, the poet says, for one whose future is so uncertain would only give others false hope. Practice in the rugged mountains carried danger to life, and the poem holds both the resolve of an ascetic aware of impermanence and consideration for those who wait.
The author, "Archbishop Gyōson," was the son of Imperial Adviser Minamoto no Motohira. A monk of Onjōji, he practiced repeatedly in the mountains of Ōmine and Kumano and later became Tendai Abbot and Archbishop. He has a poem in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.

First line, "kaerikomu": "when I will come back." It shares its first line with 479 of this book; where 479 speaks from the side of the one seeing off about the uncertain return, here the one departing himself declines to name the time.
Second line, "hodo o ba itsu to": "hodo" is the time, and "o ba," the particle "o" with "wa" voiced, marks the object strongly.
Third line, "iiokaji": the negative volitional "ji," "I will not leave word." The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "sadame naki mi wa": "a body whose fate is uncertain," the impermanence of one setting out on ascetic practice. It echoes "hodo mo sadamenu" in 479.
Fifth line, "hitodanome nari": "hitodanome" is making others hope for what cannot be relied on, so "it would only give false hope."
Author: Gyōson
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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