Namu amida hotoke no mite ni kakuru ito no owari midarenu kokoro to mo gana - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

南無阿弥陀仏の御手にかくる糸の
をはり乱れぬ心ともがな

Roma-ji: Namu amida hotoke no mite ni kakuru ito no owari midarenu kokoro to mo gana
English Translation: Namu Amida—
upon the Buddha's hand is hung
a thread, and its end
untangled, so at my end
may my heart be unperturbed.
Meaning: Namu Amida Butsu: like the thread hung upon the Buddha's hand, whose end is never tangled, may my heart remain untroubled at the end of my life.
Commentary: Book Twenty Buddhist Poems 1924

Headnote: "Composed in the hope of right mindfulness at the hour of death."
This is the ninth poem in the opening sequence of poems attributed to deities and eminent monks. Just as the end of the thread hung on the Buddha's hand stays untangled, the poet wishes that his heart, too, may remain untroubled at the end of life. According to the headnote, it was composed in the hope of right mindfulness at the hour of death.
It shows the earnest prayer of one who longs for the Pure Land: to face death with an undisturbed mind, wholly intent on Amida Buddha, and so be reborn.
The author, "Hōen Shōnin," was a monk of whom little is known; shōnin is an honorific for a monk of great virtue.
At the hour of death there was a custom of hanging five-colored threads on the hand of an image of Amida Buddha, the dying person holding the other end while chanting the nembutsu and praying for the Buddha to come in welcome.

The first line, "namu amida," works the invocation of the nembutsu into the poem, continuing into "hotoke" in the second line to form "Namu Amida Butsu."
The second line, "hotoke no mite ni," refers to the hand of the image of Amida Buddha, drawing on the custom of hanging five-colored threads at death.
The third line, "kakuru ito no," has extra syllables. It shows the thread that joins the Buddha and the poet and leads into the following "owari."
In the fourth line, "owari midarenu," "owari" is a pivot word meaning both the end of a thread and the end of life. "Thread" and "tangle" are associated words, overlaying the untangled thread with a mind undisturbed at death.
The last line, "kokoro to mo gana," expresses a wish with the final particle "mogana": may my heart be such.
Author: Hōen
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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