Imashi wa to wabinishi mono o sasagani no koromo ni kakari ware o tanomuru - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

今しはとわびにしものをささがにの
衣にかかり我を頼むる

Roma-ji: Imashi wa to wabinishi mono o sasagani no koromo ni kakari ware o tanomuru
English Translation: "It is over now,"
so I grieved and gave you up,
yet a little spider
clinging to my robe once more
sets me hoping you will come
Meaning: I had grieved and given up, thinking it was over, yet a spider clinging to my robe makes me hope once more that you will come.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 773

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
Though she had resigned herself to the end, a spider clinging to her robe makes her hope again for her lover's visit. It draws on the folk belief that a spider on one's clothes foretells the coming of an awaited person, portraying a heart that cannot let go.
The belief appears in Princess Sotōri's poem, "This is the night my beloved should come, for the spider's doings show it in advance," cited in the Kana Preface to the Kokinshū, and was long known.

The first line, "now it is over," uses the emphatic shi; these are words of one ready for the end.
In the second line nishi expresses completion and past, "I grieved and gave up," and mono o is concessive.
The third line, sasagani, is a word for spider, from its likeness to a tiny crab, also used as a pillow word for "spider."
The fourth line describes a spider clinging to one's robe, considered a sign that an awaited person will come.
In the last line tanomuru, the attributive of the lower bigrade tanomu, means "makes me hope." The resigned heart wavers again.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kokin Wakashu
Prev Poem: Kome ya to wa omou mono kara higurashi no naku yūgure wa tachimataretsutsu
Next Poem: Ima wa koji to omou mono kara wasuretsutsu mataruru koto no mada mo yamanu ka