Kimi ga yo o nagatsuki ni shimo shiragiku no saku ya chitose no shirushi naruran - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

君が代をなが月にしも白菊の
咲くや千歳のしるしなるらん

Roma-ji: Kimi ga yo o nagatsuki ni shimo shiragiku no saku ya chitose no shirushi naruran
English Translation: That white chrysanthemums
should bloom in the Long Month, when
we wish your reign long:
is this not the very sign
of a thousand years to come?
Meaning: That the white chrysanthemums should bloom just now in the Long Month, when we pray that your reign may be long: surely this is a sign that it will last a thousand years.
Commentary: Book Ten Poems of Celebration 619

Headnote: "Composed when, on the occasion of an imperial visit to the Hōkongōin in the second year of Hōen, he had poems composed on the topic 'Chrysanthemums Pledge Many Autumns'"
Composed in 1136, when Emperor Sutoku visited the Hōkongōin and had poems composed on the topic "Chrysanthemums pledge many autumns." That the white chrysanthemums bloom in the Long Month, when we wish my lord's reign long, he says, must be a sign of a thousand years. Reading "long" in Nagatsuki, the old name of the ninth month, and joining it with the chrysanthemum, the flower of the Double Ninth festival believed to bring long life, the poem celebrates the endurance of the reign. The Hōkongōin was the temple founded by Taikenmon'in, Emperor Sutoku's mother.
The author, "the Hosshōji Lay Priest and Former Chancellor," is Fujiwara no Tadamichi. The son of Regent Fujiwara no Tadazane, he served in turn as Regent, Chancellor and Grand Minister, and later took the tonsure and lived at the Hosshōji. He was the father of Kujō Kanezane, Regent at the time this anthology was compiled, and he has a poem in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
The three poems from here to 621 were composed on the same imperial visit, and all three sing of chrysanthemums.

First line, "kimi ga yo o": "my lord's reign," leading to "naga" in the second line to give "that the reign be long."
Second line, "nagatsuki ni shimo": "naga" combines the "naga" of Nagatsuki, the ninth month, and "naga," "long," said of the reign. The emphatic "shimo" gives "in this very Long Month."
Third line, "shiragiku no": white chrysanthemums among all chrysanthemums. It shares the word with "shiragiku no hana" in the last line of 621.
Fourth line, "saku ya chitose no": the interrogative binding particle "ya" closes with the attributive "ran" in the last line.
Fifth line, "shirushi naruran": "shirushi" means a sign or token. "Ran," the attributive of the present conjectural "ramu," closes the "ya" of the fourth line. Poems 627, 636 and 640 of this book also speak of a "shirushi."
Author: Fujiwara no Tadamichi
Source: Senzai Wakashu
Prev Poem: Okuyama no yatsuo no tsubaki kimi ga yo ni ikutabi kage o kaen to suran
Next Poem: Yaegiku no niou ni shirushi kimi ga yo wa chitose no aki o kasanu beshi to wa