Haru o hete nioi o souru yamazakura hana wa oi koso sakari narikere - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

春を経て匂ひを添ふる山桜
花は老いこそ盛りなりけれ

Roma-ji: Haru o hete nioi o souru yamazakura hana wa oi koso sakari narikere
English Translation: Spring after spring
you add to your loveliness,
O mountain cherry:
for blossoms, it is old age
that brings their fullest prime
Meaning: O mountain cherry, adding to your beauty spring after spring: for blossoms, it seems, old age is truly the prime.
Commentary: Book One Spring Poems I 71

Headnote: "Composed on the theme "blossoms fragrant every spring""
Composed on the theme "blossoms fragrant every spring," this poem says that mountain cherries grow lovelier with every spring, and that for flowers it is when the tree grows old that they reach their prime. Moved by an old cherry that blooms more splendidly as the years pass, the poet finds in the blossoms a flourishing in age that runs contrary to the decline of the human body.
The author, "Minamoto no Nakamasa," was a son of Minamoto no Yoritsuna, governor of Mikawa. He served as Head of the Bureau of Military Storehouses and was the father of Minamoto no Yorimasa.

First line, "haru o hete": "spring after spring," expressing the theme's "every spring." Like "toshi o hete" in 63 of this book, it sings of beauty deepening over the years.
Second line, "nioi o souru": "nioi" is the lovely color or scent of the blossoms, and "souru" means to add to it.
Third line, "yamazakura": an address to the mountain cherry, and the poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "hana wa oi koso": "koso" links with the perfective "kere" in the last line, stressing "in old age, above all."
Fifth line, "sakari narikere": "kere" is the perfective of "keri" expressing realization: "so it is their prime."
Author: Minamoto no Nakamasa
Source: Senzai Wakashu
Prev Poem: Yoshinoyama hana no sakari ni narinureba tatanu toki naki mine no shirakumo
Next Poem: Shirakumo to mine no sakura wa miyuredomo tsuki no hikari wa hedatezarikeri