Shizuhata ni hetsuru hodo nari shiraito no taenuru mi to wa omowazaranan - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

賤機にへつるほどなり白糸の
絶えぬる身とは思はざらなん

Roma-ji: Shizuhata ni hetsuru hodo nari shiraito no taenuru mi to wa omowazaranan
English Translation: On the shizu loom
it is only time stretched out
like the warp, and so
think me not one whose white thread
has snapped and come to an end
Meaning: As warp is stretched on the shizu loom, it is only that time has passed. Please do not think of me as one whose bond has snapped like a white thread.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems VI 999

Headnote: "Sent again after a long while to someone he had courted without success until it came to nothing."
The poet says that, as warp is stretched on a shizu loom, it is only that time has passed, and asks her not to think him one whose bond has snapped like white thread. Overlaying their bond with the threads of the loom, he excuses his long silence while insisting that the relation has not been cut.
According to the headnote, he sent this again after a long while to someone he had courted without success until things lapsed, and the reply is placed in the next poem, 1000. From this exchange through 1003, poems run on that speak of "breaking off" through threads and vines.
The poet is listed as anonymous, and the composer's name has not come down to us.

The first line, "Shizuhata ni," means "on the shizu loom," leading through the loom to "he" in the second line.
The second line, "hetsuru hodo nari," means "it is only the time that has passed," with "he" joining the stretching of warp on the loom and the passing of time. The poem pauses here.
The third line, "shiraito no," means "like white thread," leading to "tae," to snap. Loom, warp and thread are associated words.
The fourth line, "taenuru mi to wa," means "as one whose bond has snapped," taken up by "ito wa taete mo" in the fourth line of the next poem.
The last line, "omowazaranan," means "please do not think," with "nan" a final particle of wishing that another will act.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
Prev Poem: Uramu tomo kou tomo ikaga kumoi yori harukeki hito o sora ni shirubeki
Next Poem: Hetsuru yori usuku narinishi shizuhata no ito wa taete mo kai ya nakaran