Kazu naraba kakaramashi ya wa yo no naka ni ito kanashiki wa shizu no odamaki - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

数ならばかからましやは世の中に
いと悲しきはしづのをだまき

Roma-ji: Kazu naraba kakaramashi ya wa yo no naka ni ito kanashiki wa shizu no odamaki
English Translation: Were I of some worth,
would it ever come to this?
In the world, the thing
that grieves me most is to be
like the humble spool of thread
Meaning: Had I been of any standing, would it have come to this? What grieves me most in this world is being as lowly as a spool of humble thread.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 1425

Headnote: "When the parents of a woman I had been seeing secretly heard of it and admonished her."
This is the third poem of the sequence on life and one's lot. Had he been of ordinary standing, he says, it would not have come to this; what grieves him most is his lowly station. According to the headnote, it was composed when the parents of a woman he had been secretly seeing heard of it and admonished her.
The author, "Consultant Takamura," is Ono no Takamura. A son of Consultant Ono no Minemori, he was appointed vice-envoy to Tang China but refused to board the ship and was exiled to Oki; later pardoned, he rose to Consultant.

The first line, "kazu naraba," means "if I were of a standing to be counted."
In the second line, "kakaramashi ya wa," "mashi" is counterfactual and "ya wa" rhetorical: "would it have come to this? No, it would not." The poem breaks after the second line.
The third line, "yo no naka ni," means "in this world."
The fourth line, "ito kanashiki wa," means "what is most grievous."
In the last line, "shizu no odamaki," "shizu" is a pivot word joining "shizu," an ancient woven cloth, and "shizu," lowly in rank. Odamaki is a ball of wound thread, and the spool of shizu thread is invoked to lament a lowly station. Where the preceding poem could not bear longing, this one laments the low rank that stands in the way of love.
Author: Ono no Takamura
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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