Kimi ga sumu yado no tsubo o ba kiku zo kazaru yama no miya to ya iu bekaruran

君が住む宿の坪をば菊ぞ飾る
仙の宮とやいふべかるらん

Roma-ji: Kimi ga sumu yado no tsubo o ba kiku zo kazaru yama no miya to ya iu bekaruran
English Translation: In the inner court
of the dwelling of my lord,
chrysanthemums adorn:
should we call it, I wonder,
the palace of the immortals?
Meaning: The inner court of my lord's dwelling is adorned with chrysanthemums; should it not be called a palace of the immortals?
Commentary: Autumn Poems 466

Headnote: "When the Kyōgoku Chancellor was still a middle counselor, he grew a great many chrysanthemums and presented them to the Retired Emperor Toba, who had them planted in the court on the east side of the South Hall of the Toba palace until there was no room left; when Lesser Captain Kinshige urged people to compose poems in honor of the chrysanthemums, I was asked to join in"
The headnote tells us that Fujiwara no Munesuke, later called the Kyōgoku Chancellor, while still a middle counselor, grew a great many chrysanthemums and presented them to the Retired Emperor Toba, who had them planted so thickly in the court on the east side of the South Hall at the Toba palace that there was no room left; when Fujiwara no Kinshige urged people to compose poems celebrating the flowers, Saigyō too was asked to join. The poem says that the chrysanthemums adorn the court of his lord's dwelling, so that it may well be called a palace of the immortals.
The chrysanthemum was believed to bring long life and was sung as a flower of the realm of the immortals. The palace of a retired emperor was also called sentō, the immortals' grotto, so sen no miya lays together the immortals' land where chrysanthemums bloom and the palace of the Retired Emperor Toba. The chrysanthemum poems of this book begin here.

First line, “kimi ga sumu”: kimi, my lord, refers to the Retired Emperor Toba.
Second line, “yado no tsubo o ba”: tsubo is an inner court enclosed by buildings, the court on the east side of the South Hall named in the headnote.
Third line, “kiku zo kazaru”: a hypermetric line of six syllables; zo is answered by the attributive kazaru, the chrysanthemums adorn it, and the poem breaks after the third line.
Fourth line, “yama no miya to ya”: sen no miya, the palace of immortals, echoing the name sentō for a retired emperor's palace; the reading line reads it yama no miya.
Fifth line, “iu bekaruran”: bekaru is the attributive of beshi, and ran present conjecture, should it be called so.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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