Sakishi yori chiru made mireba ko no moto ni hana mo hikazu mo tsumorinuru kana - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

咲きしより散るまで見れば木のもとに
花も日数も積もりぬるかな

Roma-ji: Sakishi yori chiru made mireba ko no moto ni hana mo hikazu mo tsumorinuru kana
English Translation: From when they bloomed
until they fell, I watched them;
beneath the tree
both the blossoms and the days
have piled up together
Meaning: Watching from the time they bloomed until they fell, I find that beneath the tree both the fallen blossoms and the days I spent watching have piled up together.
Commentary: Book Two Spring Poems II 77

Headnote: "Composed by the Retired Emperor when, during his stay at the Toba Palace, his courtiers presented poems on the topic 'Always Gazing at Blossoms'"
This poem was composed by Retired Emperor Shirakawa himself while he was living at the Toba Palace, on an occasion when his courtiers wrote on the topic "Always Gazing at Blossoms." Watching the cherries every day from the moment they bloomed until they had all fallen, he finds that beneath the tree the fallen petals have piled up, and with them the days spent gazing at the flowers. By joining the visible petals and the invisible days under the single word "pile up," the poem makes the length of a spring devoted to blossoms felt, and it opens the second book of spring poems.
The author, "Poem by Retired Emperor Shirakawa," is Emperor Shirakawa, eldest son of Emperor Go-Sanjō, who continued to rule as retired emperor for many years after abdicating. The Toba Palace was the detached palace he built at Toba, south of the capital.

First line, "sakishi yori": "shi" is the attributive form of the past auxiliary "ki," meaning "from the very time they bloomed." Where the final poem of Book One, 76, closed with blossoms at their height, this book opens with a poem that surveys the whole span from blooming to falling.
Second line, "chiru made mireba": the realized-condition form, "as I watched them until they fell." This line expresses the headnote's topic, "Always Gazing at Blossoms."
Third line, "ko no moto ni": "beneath the tree." Poem 81 of this book, with "chiru ko no moto ni," likewise depicts the ground under a tree strewn with falling blossoms.
Fourth line, "hana mo hikazu mo": the fallen petals and the days that have passed are set side by side with "mo." Poem 132 of this book, which wishes for more "days when blossoms do not fall," answers this poem in terms of counting days.
Fifth line, "tsumorinuru kana": "nuru" is the attributive form of the perfective "nu," and "kana" is an exclamatory particle. Petals piling up and days piling up are expressed in one word, conveying the realization that a long time has passed unnoticed.
Author: Retired Emperor Shirakawa
Source: Senzai Wakashu
Prev Poem: Miyoshino no hana no sakari o kyō mireba Koshi no shirane ni harukaze zo fuku
Next Poem: Ikemizu ni migiwa no sakura chirishikite nami no hana koso sakari narikere