Yuki naraba magaki ni nomi wa tsumoraji to omoitoku ni zo shiragiku no hana - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

雪ならば籬にのみは積もらじと
思ひとくにぞ白菊の花

Roma-ji: Yuki naraba magaki ni nomi wa tsumoraji to omoitoku ni zo shiragiku no hana
English Translation: If it were snow,
it would not pile up only
on the brushwood fence:
so reasoning, it melts away
into white chrysanthemums
Meaning: If it were snow, it would not pile up only on the brushwood fence: so reasoning, I realize these are white chrysanthemums.
Commentary: Book Five Autumn Poems II 348

Headnote: "Composed on the topic 'Chrysanthemums by the Fence Like Snow'"
Composed on the topic "Chrysanthemums by the Fence Like Snow." The poet took the white mass heaped on the brushwood fence for snow, but reasoning that snow would not pile up on the fence alone, he at last understood it to be white chrysanthemums. He presents the conceit of mistaking white chrysanthemums for snow by untangling it through reasoning.
The author, "Saki no Daisōjō Gyōkei," was a son of Emperor Shirakawa. A monk of Onjōji, he rose to Archbishop.
The five poems from 346 through 350 of this book are poems on chrysanthemums, and 346, 348 and 350 all end with "shiragiku no hana," the white chrysanthemum.

First line, "yuki naraba": "if it were snow," a supposition taking up the topic's "like snow."
Second line, "magaki ni nomi wa": "magaki" is a coarse fence of bamboo or brushwood, and "nomi" limits it, "on the fence alone." The next poem, 349, also sings of "magaki no kiku," chrysanthemums by the fence.
Third line, "tsumoraji to": "ji" is the negative conjecture, "it would not pile up."
Fourth line, "omoitoku ni zo": "omoitoku" is to reason something out, with "toku" also meaning for snow to melt. What looked like snow melts, as it were, into chrysanthemums as he thinks. "Zo" is emphatic.
Fifth line, "shiragiku no hana": the poem ends on a noun, naming at last what it really is, the same last line as 346 and 350 of this book.
Author: Gyokei
Source: Senzai Wakashu
Prev Poem: Shiragiku no ha ni oku tsuyu ni yadorazu wa hana to zo mimashi terasu tsukikage
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