Unahara no neyawara kosuge amata areba kimi wa wasurasu ware wasurure ya

海原の根柔ら小菅あまたあれば
君は忘らす我れ忘るれや

Roma-ji: Unahara no neyawara kosuge amata areba kimi wa wasurasu ware wasurure ya
English Translation: By the open sea
soft-rooted little sedges grow,
so many are there—
you, my lord, will forget me,
but would I ever forget you?
Meaning: Like the soft-rooted sedges by the sea, there are so many women that you forget me—but would I ever forget you?
Commentary: Book Fourteen Azuma Poems 3498

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Sōmon (Love Exchanges)"
As soft-rooted little sedges grow thick by the sea, the lover has many women and may forget her, a woman says, but she will never forget him. Resentment at his fickleness is set against her own unchanging love.
It is one of the love exchanges. Likening sedges to women is also seen in "tamakosuge" in the miscellaneous poem 3445.
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, "unahara no": The wide expanse of the sea.
Second line, "neyawara kosuge": Little sedges with soft roots, a figure for many women.
Third line, "amata areba": "Since there are so many," a hypermetric line.
Fourth line, "kimi wa wasurasu": "Wasurasu" is "forget" with honorific nuance; the poem pauses here.
Final line, "ware wasurure ya": "Ya" is rhetorical: would I forget? Never. "Kimi" in the fourth line and "ware" in the last stand in contrast.
Source: Manyoshu
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