Oshimedomo tsune naranu yo no hana nareba ima wa kono mi o nishi ni motomen - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

惜しめども常ならぬ世の花なれば
今はこの身を西に求めん

Roma-ji: Oshimedomo tsune naranu yo no hana nareba ima wa kono mi o nishi ni motomen
English Translation: Though I may regret,
these are blossoms of a world
where nothing endures—
now I shall seek for myself
a place in the western land.
Meaning: However much I regret them, these are blossoms of an impermanent world; now I will seek my own destination in the Pure Land of the west.
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1465

Headnote: "Granted to the Later Sanjō Palace Minister on seeing the blossoms about to fall at the Toba Palace."
This is the fifteenth poem of the sequence on the cherry. However much one regrets them, the blossoms of an impermanent world will fall, and so the emperor resolves now to seek his own destination in the western Pure Land. According to the headnote, it was granted to the Later Sanjō Palace Minister on seeing the blossoms about to fall at the Toba Palace.
The author, "the Poem of Retired Emperor Toba," is Emperor Toba. A son of Emperor Horikawa, after abdicating he ruled as retired emperor through the three reigns of Sutoku, Konoe, and Go-Shirakawa, and later took the tonsure.
The Toba Palace was a detached palace built at Toba, south of the capital. "The Later Sanjō Palace Minister" of the headnote is the title of a Palace Minister who attended the retired emperor.

The first line, "oshimedomo," adds the concessive "domo" to the perfective form, meaning "though I regret." It first shows the heart that grieves for the falling blossoms.
The second line, "tsune naranu yo no," refers to the impermanent world. Like "tsune naranu yo ni," the fourth line of 1445 in this book, it is a phrase that sees impermanence in the blossoms.
The third line, "hana nareba," adds "ba" to the perfective form to state a fixed condition: "because they are blossoms."
The fourth line, "ima wa kono mi o," turns from grieving over the blossoms to thoughts of his own end.
In the last line, "nishi ni motomen," "nishi," the west, refers to the Pure Land of Paradise in the west. With the volitional "n," it expresses a heart that, awakened to impermanence by the falling blossoms, longs for the Pure Land.
Author: Retired Emperor Toba
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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