Ajikama no kata ni saku nami hirase ni mo himo toku mono ka kanashike o okite

阿遅可麻の潟にさく波平瀬にも
紐解くものか愛しけを置きて

Roma-ji: Ajikama no kata ni saku nami hirase ni mo himo toku mono ka kanashike o okite
English Translation: At Ajikama
on the flats the white waves break,
in the shallow shoals
would I loosen my cords for one—
leaving you, my dearest, aside?
Meaning: Like the waves breaking on the flats of Ajikama—would I ever untie my sash for some shallow one, leaving you, my dearest, aside?
Commentary: Book Fourteen Azuma Poems 3551

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Sōmon (Love Exchanges)"
Like waves breaking on the flats of Ajikama, would she ever give herself to some shallow man, setting aside her beloved? So a woman vows. A firm will not to yield to any other man is expressed.
It is one of the love exchanges. Ajikama is a place of unknown location, also named in 3553, "Ajikama no kake no minato."
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, "ajikama no": A place of unknown location, also seen in 3553.
Second line, "kata ni saku nami": "Saku nami" is thought to be white waves breaking on the flats.
Third line, "hirase ni mo": "Hirase" is a shallow, flat shoal, a figure for a shallow man. The first three lines form a preface.
Fourth line, "himo toku mono ka": "Mono ka" is rhetorical: would I untie my sash? The poem pauses here.
Final line, "kanashike o okite": "Kanashike" is an eastern form of "kanashiki": leaving my dearest aside, given at the end by inversion. The line is hypermetric.
Source: Manyoshu
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