Azu no ue ni koma o tsunagite ayahokado hitozuma koro o iki ni waga suru

あずの上に駒を繋ぎて危ほかど
人妻子ろを息に我がする

Roma-ji: Azu no ue ni koma o tsunagite ayahokado hitozuma koro o iki ni waga suru
English Translation: On the crumbling cliff,
like tethering a horse up there,
dangerous though it is,
this girl who is another's wife—
she is my very breath of life.
Meaning: Dangerous as tethering a horse on a crumbling cliff, yet I hold that girl, another man's wife, as dear as my very breath.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Azuma Poems 3539

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Sōmon (Love Exchanges)"
Though it is as perilous as tethering a horse on a crumbling cliff, the singer cannot help holding another man's wife as dear as life itself. The danger of a forbidden love and the feeling that cannot be held back are both expressed.
It is one of the love exchanges, as the horse poems continue. The next poem also sings of "azu" and "hitozuma koro," making the two a pair of similar poems. Love for another's wife is also sung in 3472.
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, "azu no ue ni": "Azu" is thought to be a crumbling cliff, the same word as "azue" in the next poem.
Second line, "koma o tsunagite": "Tethering a horse"; the first two lines form a preface.
Third line, "ayahokado": "Ayahokado" is an eastern form of "ayaukeredo": though it is dangerous.
Fourth line, "hitozuma koro o": "That girl who is another's wife," the same as the fourth line of the next poem.
Final line, "iki ni waga suru": "Iki ni" is thought to mean as dear as life, at the risk of life.
Source: Manyoshu
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