Saritomo to tanomi zo kakuru yūdasuki waga Kataoka no kami to omoeba - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

さりともと頼みぞかくる木綿襷
わがかたをかの神と思へば

Roma-ji: Saritomo to tanomi zo kakuru yūdasuki waga Kataoka no kami to omoeba
English Translation: Still, surely, I think,
and hang my hopes upon it
like a sacred sash,
for upon my shoulder rests
the god of Kataoka
Meaning: Surely, I think, and hang my hopes on him as one hangs a sacred sash across the shoulder, for I believe the god of Kataoka is on my side.
Commentary: Book Twenty Shinto Poems 1271

Headnote: "Composed and written down when, serving as an attendant priest at Kataoka, I had asked to be moved to the post of senior priest at the same shrine. Afterward, it is said, he did become senior priest"
He composed and wrote this when, an attendant priest of the Kataoka Shrine, he had asked to be moved up to senior priest of the same shrine; afterward he did become senior priest. The Kataoka Shrine is a subsidiary shrine of the Kamo Wakeikazuchi Shrine. Still, surely, I hang my hopes on him, as one hangs a sacred sash, for he is the god of Kataoka, on my side, he says. He overlays hanging hopes on the god with hanging a sacred mulberry sash on the shoulder in rites, and trusts that the god of Kataoka, whom he has long served, will surely take his part.
The author, "Kamo no Masahira," was a priest of the Kamo Wakeikazuchi Shrine who, according to the headnote, rose from attendant priest to senior priest at Kataoka. The details of his life are not known.
The next poem, 1272, also opens with "saritomo to," and both sing of trusting in the gods of Kamo. Following the preceding poem, 1270, it is another poem praying to a god for an appointment that was later granted.

First line, "saritomo to": "even so, surely," a heart that will not give up hope. It is the same phrase as "saritomo to" in the first line of the next poem, 1272.
Second line, "tanomi zo kakuru": "kaku" plays on hanging one's hopes and hanging a sash. "Zo," an emphatic binding particle, closes with the attributive "kakuru." The poem pauses here.
Third line, "yūdasuki": a sash of mulberry cloth worn on the shoulder by those serving in rites. With "kaku" of the second line, it leads to "kata" in the fourth.
Fourth line, "waga Kataoka no": "kata" plays on "kata," my side, my ally, and "kata," the shoulder the sash is hung on, running into the shrine's name, Kataoka.
Fifth line, "kami to omoeba": "ba" marks an established condition, "since I think him the god." By inversion it gives the reason for the second line.
Author: Kamo no Masahira
Source: Senzai Wakashu
Prev Poem: Ima made ni nado shizumuran Kibunegawa kabakari hayaki kami o tanomu o
Next Poem: Saritomo to tanomu kokoro wa kamisabite hisashiku narinu Kamo no mizugaki