Aki fukami narabu hana naki kiku nareba tokoro o shimo no oke to koso omoe

秋深み並ぶ花なき菊なれば
所を霜の置けとこそ思へ

Roma-ji: Aki fukami narabu hana naki kiku nareba tokoro o shimo no oke to koso omoe
English Translation: Autumn's deepened now,
and with no flower to stand
by the chrysanthemum,
frost, I think, should mind its place
and settle elsewhere out of deference.
Meaning: Now that autumn has deepened and no other flower remains to stand beside the chrysanthemum, I would have even the frost defer to it and settle somewhere else.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 468

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Chrysanthemums"
This poem continues the topic of chrysanthemums. With autumn deep, the other flowers have all fallen and none remains to stand beside the chrysanthemum, so the poet would have even the frost defer to it and settle elsewhere. Cherishing the chrysanthemum that alone still blooms in late autumn, he asks even the frost to show it respect.
Tokoro o oku is an expression meaning to hold back out of deference, and it is laid over the settling, oku, of the frost. Where the two poems before praised the chrysanthemum as a flower of long life and the land of the immortals, this one sings of the wish to protect the last chrysanthemum of late autumn from the frost.

First line, “aki fukami”: since autumn is deep; mi added to an adjective stem expresses a reason.
Second line, “narabu hana naki”: with no other flower to stand beside it, the chrysanthemum blooming on alone.
Third line, “kiku nareba”: since it is the chrysanthemum, the perfective form with ba.
Fourth line, “tokoro o shimo no”: using the expression tokoro o oku, the frost holding back and keeping its distance.
Fifth line, “oke to koso omoe”: oke is an imperative, and koso is answered by the perfective omoe; laying the frost's settling over keeping its distance, it stresses the wish that the frost should do so.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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