Takigi koru kamakurayama no kodaru ki o matsu to na ga iwaba koitsutsu ya aramu

薪伐る鎌倉山の木垂る木を
松と汝が言はば恋ひつつやあらむ

Roma-ji: Takigi koru kamakurayama no kodaru ki o matsu to na ga iwaba koitsutsu ya aramu
English Translation: Firewood-cutting
Kamakura's mountainside—
a tree with drooping boughs:
if you named it "pine," "I wait,"
would I go on pining here?
Meaning: If you were to call that drooping tree on firewood-cutting Kamakura's hill a "pine"—that is, if you said "I wait"—would I go on just longing for you?
Commentary: Book Fourteen Azuma Poems 3433

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Allegorical Poems"
If the beloved would call the drooping tree on Mount Kamakura a "pine"—"matsu," which also means "I wait"—the singer would not stay here suffering but come at once. The wit of the pun on "pine" and "wait" is at the poem's center.
The left note reads "The three poems above are from Sagami Province," and this is the last Sagami allegory. Kamakura was also named in 3365 and 3366.
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, "takigi koru": "Cutting firewood," a pillow word for Kamakura through "kama," a sickle.
Second line, "kamakurayama no": The hills of Kamakura, the Sagami place name sung once again.
Third line, "kodaru ki o": "Kodaru" means boughs heavy with leaves hanging low.
Fourth line, "matsu to na ga iwaba": "Matsu," pine, puns on "matsu," to wait; the line is hypermetric.
Final line, "koitsutsu ya aramu": "Ya" is rhetorical: would I go on longing? No, I would go to you.
Source: Manyoshu
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