Shimo furedo sakae koso mase kimi ga yo ni Ausakayama no seki no sugimori - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

霜降れど栄えこそ増せ君が代に
あふさか山の関の杉森

Roma-ji: Shimo furedo sakae koso mase kimi ga yo ni Ausakayama no seki no sugimori
English Translation: Though the frost may fall,
its flourishing only grows,
having met your reign:
the cedar grove beside the gate
upon Mount Ōsaka
Meaning: Though the frost may fall, its flourishing only grows greater: the cedar grove by the barrier on Mount Ōsaka, which has met with my lord's reign.
Commentary: Book Ten Poems of Celebration 639

Headnote: "A poem for the folding screen of the Yuki side at the Great Thanksgiving Festival of the third year of Nin'an, in the reign of Emperor Takakura"
A poem written for the folding screen of the Yuki side at the Great Thanksgiving Festival of 1168, in the reign of Emperor Takakura. Though the frost may fall, he says, the flourishing of the cedar grove by the barrier on Mount Ōsaka, which has met my lord's reign, only grows. Saying that the evergreen cedars, which do not wither in the frost, flourish all the more for having met the new emperor's reign, and weaving in Mount Ōsaka, a famed place of Ōmi, the poem celebrates the endurance of the reign.
The author, "Nagenori, Minister of the Imperial Household," is Fujiwara no Nagenori. A Confucian scholar of the Southern House of the Fujiwara, he served as Professor of Letters and rose to Minister of the Imperial Household, and he was repeatedly called on to compose poems for the Great Thanksgiving Festival.
The final poem of the book, 640, is also for the Yuki side and sings of the cedar grove of Mount Mikami in Ōmi, so that this poem's cedars of Mount Ōsaka and that grove, two poems of cedars, close the book.

First line, "shimo furedo": "fure" is the perfective, and with "do" it gives a concessive fixed condition, "though the frost falls."
Second line, "sakae koso mase": "mase" is the perfective of the verb "masu," "to increase," closing the binding particle "koso," "its flourishing grows all the more." The poem pauses here.
Third line, "kimi ga yo ni": "with my lord's reign," leading on to "au" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "Ausakayama no": "ausaka" combines "au," "to meet" the reign, and the place name Ōsaka. Mount Ōsaka lay on the border of Yamashiro and Ōmi, and a barrier stood there.
Fifth line, "seki no sugimori": "the cedar grove by the barrier" of Ōsaka, ending on a noun. It shares the cedars with "sugimura ya" in the third line of 640, the last poem of the book.
Author: Fujiwara no Naganori
Source: Senzai Wakashu
Prev Poem: Ametsuchi no kiwame mo shiranu miyo nareba Kumota no mura no ine o koso tsuke
Next Poem: Tokiwa naru Mikami no yama no sugimura ya yaoyorozuyo no shirushi naruran