Oki ni sumo ogamo no mokoro yasakadori ikizuku imo o okite kino kamo

沖に住も小鴨のもころ八尺鳥
息づく妹を置きて来のかも

Roma-ji: Oki ni sumo ogamo no mokoro yasakadori ikizuku imo o okite kino kamo
English Translation: Living out at sea,
like the little wild duck,
like a long-breathed bird,
my wife who sighed so deep and long—
I have left her and come away.
Meaning: Like the little duck that lives out at sea, the long-breathing bird, my wife sighed deeply—and I have left her behind and come away.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Azuma Poems 3527

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Sōmon (Love Exchanges)"
As the little duck living offshore dives and draws long breaths, the singer's wife sighed at their parting, and he has left her behind. The image of his wife as he set out remains in his heart, laid over the breathing of waterfowl.
It is one of the love exchanges, as the waterfowl poems continue. Some take it as a frontier guard's departure poem. "Ikizuku kimi" appears in 3388.
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, "oki ni sumo": "Sumo" is an eastern form of "sumu": living offshore.
Second line, "ogamo no mokoro": "Mokoro" means like: like the little duck.
Third line, "yasakadori": "Yasakadori," a bird of long breath, is a pillow word for "sighing."
Fourth line, "ikizuku imo o": "Ikizuku" is to sigh, the same word as "ikizuku kimi" in 3388.
Final line, "okite kino kamo": "Kino" is an eastern form of "kinu," and "kamo" is exclamatory.
Source: Manyoshu
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