Sasagani no kumode ni kakete hiku ito ya kyō tanabata ni kasasagi no hashi

ささがにの蜘蛛手にかけて引く糸や
今日七夕にかささぎの橋

Roma-ji: Sasagani no kumode ni kakete hiku ito ya kyō tanabata ni kasasagi no hashi
English Translation: Spun by the spider,
strung outward every way,
these threads that it draws:
are they on this Tanabata
the magpies' bridge across the sky?
Meaning: The threads the spider draws and stretches out in every direction: are they the magpies' bridge, laid across the sky for Tanabata today?
Commentary: Autumn Poems 263

Headnote: "On seeing a spider spinning its web"
The headnote tells us the poet composed this on seeing a spider spinning its web. On the day of Tanabata, he looks at the threads the spider has stretched in every direction and asks whether they are the magpies' bridge that will carry the stars across for the festival today. The device sets a small spider's web against the bridge spanning the River of Heaven.
Legend says that on the night of Tanabata magpies link their wings to form a bridge across the River of Heaven for the Weaver to cross. The Chinese Jingchu suishiji also records that at the Tanabata rite for skill a spider spinning its web over a melon was taken as a good omen, and the pairing of spider and festival echoes this. Placed after the Tanabata sequence, the poem rounds off the theme through the threads of a familiar spider.

First line, “sasagani no”: a pillow word for kumo, spider.
Second line, “kumode ni kakete”: kumode means spreading in all directions like a spider's legs, showing how the web is strung.
Third line, “hiku ito ya”: ya is a question particle, asking about the thread the spider draws.
Fourth line, “kyō tanabata ni”: for today, the day of Tanabata itself.
Fifth line, “kasasagi no hashi”: the poem ends on a noun, the legendary bridge the magpies form across the River of Heaven on the night of Tanabata, likening the spider's thread to that bridge.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
Prev Poem: Machitsukete ureshikaruran tanabata no kokoro no uchi zo sora ni shiraruru
Next Poem: Yūtsuyu o haraeba sode ni tama kiete michi wakekanuru ono no hagiwara