Kimi masaba mazu zo oramashi sakurabana kaze no tayori ni kiku zo kanashiki - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

君まさばまづぞ折らまし桜花
風のたよりに聞くぞ悲しき

Roma-ji: Kimi masaba mazu zo oramashi sakurabana kaze no tayori ni kiku zo kanashiki
English Translation: Were you still with us,
I'd have broken them for you
first of all, these blossoms;
now it's on the wind's report
that I hear, and how it grieves.
Meaning: If you were still alive, I would have broken off these cherry blossoms for you before anything else. Now it is by word on the wind that I hear of it, and that is sad.
Commentary: Book Twenty Lament Poems 1278

Headnote: "After hearing of this"
The poet says that it is sad to hear on the wind of the cherry blossoms he would have broken off first of all, if the one he speaks to were alive. The headnote shows it was composed after hearing of the sequence before, the poems of the spring after Saneyori lost his daughter. Calling a report by word of mouth "news on the wind," through the wind that scatters blossoms, he conveys the sorrow of learning of a death at second hand, now that there is no one to show the blossoms to.
The author, written as "Major Counselor Nobumitsu," is Minamoto no Nobumitsu. A son of Prince Yoshiakira, son of Emperor Daigo, he rose to Major Counselor.

First line, "kimi masaba," means "if you were here," with "masu" honorific and "ba" after the irrealis form expressing supposition.
Second line, "mazu zo oramashi," means "I would have broken them first," with "mashi" the auxiliary of counterfactual supposition, resolving the binding particle "zo" in the attributive form.
Third line, "sakurabana," means "cherry blossoms," the same blossoms sung in the sequence 1274 to 1277 in this book. The poem breaks after this third line.
Fourth line, "kaze no tayori ni," means "by news on the wind," bringing in the wind through its link with scattering blossoms.
Final line, "kiku zo kanashiki," means "it is sad to hear," with the binding particle "zo" resolved by "kanashiki," the attributive form of the adjective.
Author: Minamoto no Nobumitsu
Source: Shui Wakashu
Prev Poem: Sakurabana niou mono kara tsuyukeki wa kono me mo mono o omou narubeshi
Next Poem: Inishie wa chiru o ya hito no oshimiken hana koso ima wa mukashi kourashi