Haru kureba nao kono yo koso shinobarure itsu ka wa kakaru hana o miru beki - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

春来ればなほこの世こそしのばるれ
いつかはかかる花を見るべき

Roma-ji: Haru kureba nao kono yo koso shinobarure itsu ka wa kakaru hana o miru beki
English Translation: When the spring comes round
this world of ours, all the more,
I find myself love:
when else might I ever see
blossoms such as these again?
Meaning: When spring comes, I find myself still clinging to this world—for when, once gone from it, could I ever see blossoms such as these?
Commentary: Book Sixteen Miscellaneous Poems I 1467

Headnote: "For the poetry contest at the house of the Lay Priest, Former Regent and Chancellor."
This is the seventeenth poem of the sequence on the cherry. When spring comes, the poet says, this world is still dear to him, for when else could he see such blossoms? According to the headnote, it was presented at a poetry contest at the house of the Lay Priest, Former Regent and Chancellor.
The author, "Master of the Empress Dowager's Household Shunzei," is Fujiwara no Shunzei. He was the son of Fujiwara no Toshitada and the father of Teika. He served as Master of the Empress Dowager's Household and took the tonsure in Angen 2 (1176). He compiled the Senzai Wakashū. No author's name is given in the text; the poem follows the author of the preceding poem.
The "Lay Priest, Former Regent and Chancellor" of the headnote is Kujō Kanezane.

The first line, "haru kureba," adds "ba" to the perfective form to state a fixed condition: "when spring comes."
In the second line, "nao kono yo koso," "koso" is a binding particle, closed by "rure" in the third line. Although in the preceding poem the renunciant sought his dwelling at Yoshino, it shows that his attachment to this world is still hard to sever.
The third line, "shinobarure," closes the kakari-musubi of the particle "koso" with "rure," the perfective form of the spontaneous auxiliary "ru." It means that this world comes unbidden to seem dear, and the poem breaks after the third line.
The fourth line, "itsu ka wa kakaru," uses the rhetorical "ka" to mean "in what world could such."
The last line, "hana o miru beki," closes with the attributive form "beki" in response to the particle "ka." Once gone from this world, one could never see such blossoms again; the blossoms become the reason for clinging to this world. The next poem also uses the words "kono yo" in praising the blossoms.
Author: Fujiwara no Shunzei
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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