Katsushika no mama no tegona o makoto kamo ware ni yosu tou mama no tegona o

葛飾の真間の手児名をまことかも
我れに寄すとふ真間の手児名を

Roma-ji: Katsushika no mama no tegona o makoto kamo ware ni yosu tou mama no tegona o
English Translation: At Katsushika
lives Tekona of Mama—
can it truly be?
They link my name with hers, they say,
with Tekona of Mama!
Meaning: Tekona of Mama in Katsushika—can it be true? They say she is linked with me, Tekona of Mama!
Commentary: Book Fourteen Azuma Poems 3384

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Sōmon (Love Exchanges)"
The singer wonders, with surprise and delight, whether it can be true that people are linking him with Tekona, the beautiful maiden of Mama in Katsushika. The repetition of the opening lines in the last line gives the poem a folk song's lilt.
The left note reads "The four poems above are from Shimōsa Province." Tekona of Mama is a legendary beauty said to have drowned herself after being wooed by many men; she is also sung of by Yamabe no Akahito in Book Three and Takahashi no Mushimaro in Book Nine.
The poet is unknown. The Azuma uta are thought to have been sung among the people of the eastern provinces, and they are marked by plain, open-hearted expression mixed with local dialect.

First line, "katsushika no": Katsushika in Shimōsa, the same opening as 3349. The following poems 3385 and 3387 also open this way, forming a group on Mama in Katsushika.
Second line, "mama no tegona o": "Tegona" is the legendary maiden of Mama; the line echoes the second line of the next poem.
Third line, "makoto kamo": A self-questioning phrase, "can it be true?" with "kamo" asking.
Fourth line, "ware ni yosu tou": "Yosu" means to link by rumor, and "tou" is a contraction of "to iu."
Final line, "mama no tegona o": The second line is repeated, deepening his longing for Tekona as the poem ends.
Source: Manyoshu
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