Chiranu ma ni ima hitotabi mo miteshi kana hana ni sakidatsu mi tomo koso nare - Shika Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

散らぬ間に今ひとたびも見てしかな
花に先立つ身ともこそなれ

Roma-ji: Chiranu ma ni ima hitotabi mo miteshi kana hana ni sakidatsu mi tomo koso nare
English Translation: Before they scatter
just one more time, if only
I could see them bloom —
for I may well be the one
who goes before the blossoms
Meaning: Before they scatter, I wish I could see them just once more — for I may well be the one to leave this world before the blossoms.
Commentary: Book Nine Miscellaneous Poems I 277

The poet wishes to see the blossoms once more before they fall, giving as the reason that he may die before they do. Overlaying his own life on the brief life of the flowers, the poem holds an urgent sense of age and impermanence.
Taking up "one who views the blossoms" in the preceding poem, 276, it overlays the act of viewing flowers with thoughts of mortality.

The first line, "chiranu ma ni" (before they scatter), uses the attributive negative.
The second line, "ima hitotabi mo" (once more), adds with "mo" the sense of "at least."
The third line, "miteshi kana," ends with the wishful "teshi kana": how I wish to see them, with a break after the third line.
The fourth line, "hana ni sakidatsu," means to leave this world before the blossoms.
The final line, "mi tomo koso nare," uses "mo" and "koso" to express apprehension and closes "koso" with the perfective "nare," a kakari-musubi meaning "for I may become one who goes first."
Source: Shika Wakashu
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