Waga mezuma hito wa sakuredo asagao no toshi sae kogoto wa wa sakaru gae

我が目妻人は放くれど朝顔の
としさへこごと我は離るがへ

Roma-ji: Waga mezuma hito wa sakuredo asagao no toshi sae kogoto wa wa sakaru gae
English Translation: My dearly loved wife—
though others would part us two,
like the morning glory,
through the years, still close as one,
would I ever leave you? No.
Meaning: Though others try to part me from my dear wife, like the morning glory year after year—would I ever leave her? Never.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Azuma Poems 3502

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Sōmon (Love Exchanges)"
However others try to separate him from his beloved wife, the singer vows he will never leave her. A love that will not yield to opposition is forcefully voiced with a rhetorical ending.
It is one of the love exchanges. Its last line matches 3420 from Kōzuke, "oya wa sakuredo wa wa sakaru gae," sharing the pattern of those who would part the couple and one who will not part. The third and fourth lines are obscure and their reading unsettled.
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, "waga mezuma": "Mezuma" is thought to mean a cherished wife, one kept in sight.
Second line, "hito wa sakuredo": "Though others would part us"; in 3420 it is "oya wa sakuredo," though my parents would part us.
Third line, "asagao no": Thought to be a pillow word for "toshi," though how it attaches is unknown.
Fourth line, "toshi sae kogoto": An obscure line, read by some as "unchanged even as the years go by."
Final line, "wa wa sakaru gae": "Gae" is an eastern rhetorical ending, the same last line as in 3420.
Source: Manyoshu
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