Kotoshi mata sakubeki hana no araba koso utsurou kiku ni mekare o mo seme - Shika Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

今年また咲くべき花のあらばこそ
うつろふ菊にめかれをもせめ

Roma-ji: Kotoshi mata sakubeki hana no araba koso utsurou kiku ni mekare o mo seme
English Translation: If this year again
there were flowers yet to bloom,
then, and only then,
from the fading chrysanthemum
might I turn my eyes away
Meaning: If there were other flowers still to bloom this year, I might take my eyes off the fading chrysanthemum; but there are none.
Commentary: Book Three Autumn Poems 128

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
This is a poem by the monk Dōmyō. The chrysanthemum is the last flower of the year, and no flower follows it, so he cannot take his eyes off the fading blooms.
With the construction ba koso ... me, "only if ... would I," he stresses the opposite reality: were there other flowers he might look away, but there are none. Taking up the preceding poem's grief over the fading white chrysanthemum, it sings of gazing on and on at the last flower.

The first line, "kotoshi mata," means "again this year."
The second line, "sakubeki hana no," means "flowers that should bloom," those that would come after the chrysanthemum.
The third line, "araba koso," means "only if there were," with koso answered by the realis me in the last line.
The fourth line, "utsurou kiku ni," means "from the fading chrysanthemum," taking up "the changing color" of the preceding poem, 127.
The last line, "mekare o mo seme," means "I might look away," me being the realis form of the conjectural mu. It implies that in fact he cannot.
Author: Dōmyō
Source: Shika Wakashu
Prev Poem: Shimogaruru hajime to mizu wa shiragiku no utsurou iro o nagekazaramashi
Next Poem: Kusagare no fuyu made miyo to tsuyujimo no okite nokoseru shiragiku no hana