Constancy — Summary

A long time has passed, but the promises two people made to each other have not faded. They are still tied to the old, sturdy trunk of seven separate trees growing in the courtyard of the Crimson Temple at Nara. The image is quiet and devoted: the vows are not abstract; they have a physical, rooted home in a sacred place. The poem feels less like a dramatic declaration than a calm act of remembering. Time is acknowledged honestly — “Although so many years” — but it has not loosened what was fastened there. The temple setting adds a sense of stillness and reverence, as if the commitment has become part of the landscape. The mood is tender, steady, and a little wistful, because the speaker holds onto something lasting even as the years move on.