Yamazakura omoiyosoete nagamureba kigoto no hana wa yuki masarikeri

山桜思ひよそへてながむれば
木ごとの花は雪まさりけり

Roma-ji: Yamazakura omoiyosoete nagamureba kigoto no hana wa yuki masarikeri
English Translation: Mountain cherry blooms,
that is what I liken them to
as I gaze on them:
the flowers on every tree,
the snow's are finer still.
Meaning: As I gaze at them, likening them to mountain cherries, I find the flowers on every tree are finer still for being snow.
Commentary: Winter Poems 567

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
The poet gazes at the snow piled on the trees, likening it to mountain cherry blossoms, and finds that the flowers on every tree are finer as snow than real cherry blossoms would be. The device lies not only in likening snow to cherries but in judging the snow-flowers the more beautiful.
It draws on the word kigoto, every tree, from Ki no Tomonori's poem in the Kokin Wakashū, which says that when snow falls, flowers bloom on every tree, so which could one pick out as plum. Like 512 and 565 in this book, it also joins snow and cherries.

First line, “yamazakura”: yamazakura is the mountain cherry, to which the snow is likened.
Second line, “omoiyosoete”: yosou is to liken or compare.
Third line, “nagamureba”: nagamu is to gaze lost in thought, and ba marks an established condition.
Fourth line, “kigoto no hana wa”: kigoto means on every tree, drawing on the word in Ki no Tomonori's poem in the Kokin Wakashū.
Fifth line, “yuki masarikeri”: masaru is to excel, and keri is exclamatory, closing on the snow-flowers being finer.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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