Ashihiki no yamasawa egu o tsumi ni yukamu hi dani mo awase haha wa semu tomo

あしひきの山沢ゑぐを摘みに行かむ
日だにも逢はせ母は責むとも

Roma-ji: Ashihiki no yamasawa egu o tsumi ni yukamu hi dani mo awase haha wa semu tomo
English Translation: On the foot-dragging
mountain, to the marsh I'll go
to pick the egu:
on that day at least meet me,
though my mother scold me so
Meaning: On the day I go to gather egu in the mountain marsh, at least on that day, come and meet me, even if my mother scolds me for it.
Commentary: Book Eleven Love Poems Ancient and Modern I 2760

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Expressing Feelings through Things"
This is a woman's love poem pleading with her lover to meet her at least on the day she goes to gather egu in a mountain marsh, even if her mother should scold her. It conveys her single-minded wish to slip past the mother who watches over her daughter's love and to use a chance to go out as a time to meet.
It is a poem "Expressing Feelings through Things" that speaks through egu, and like the preceding poem it is voiced by a woman and sings of picking plants. Whereas the preceding poem resolves to wait long while raising plants in her garden, this one seeks to make a day out in the fields a chance to meet, setting a poem of waiting beside a poem of going out to meet. A mother who stands in the way of her daughter's love is a setting often found in the love poems of the Man'yoshu.
The author is unknown. The anonymous poems of Book Eleven gather love poems by people whose names have not come down to us.

First line, "ashihiki no": a pillow word attached to "yama," "mountain."
Second line, "yamasawa egu o": "the egu of the mountain marsh." Egu is a waterside plant gathered for food.
Third line, "tsumi ni yukamu": "on which I will go to pick them." "Mu" is the attributive form of an auxiliary of conjecture and intention, modifying "hi" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "hi dani mo awase": "on that day at least, meet me." "Dani" marks the least that is hoped for, and "awase" is the imperative of the honorific auxiliary "su," making an earnest plea. The poem breaks here, inverted with the last line.
Fifth line, "haha wa semu tomo": "even if my mother scolds me." "Tomo" is a concessive conditional particle, adding afterward her readiness to face her mother's reproach.
Source: Manyoshu
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