Okite ikaba imo wa makanashi mochite yuku azusa no yumi no yuzuka ni mogamo

置きて行かば妹はま愛し持ちて行く
梓の弓の弓束にもがも

Roma-ji: Okite ikaba imo wa makanashi mochite yuku azusa no yumi no yuzuka ni mogamo
English Translation: Should I leave her here,
how dear my wife would be to me!
That I carry off,
the bow of catalpa wood—
oh, were she its grip in my hand!
Meaning: If I leave my wife behind, I will miss her so—if only she were the grip of the catalpa bow I carry with me.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Azuma Poems 3567

Headnote: "Poems of the Frontier Guards"
Since he will be unable to bear leaving his wife at home, a frontier guard wishes she were at least the grip of the bow he carries. Likening his wife to the bow he always holds expresses his wish never to part from her for a moment.
The section of frontier guards' poems begins here. The left note groups it with the next as "the two poems above are a question and answer," this one the frontier guard's question and the next his wife's reply.
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, "okite ikaba": "If I leave her"; the line is hypermetric with six syllables.
Second line, "imo wa makanashi": "Makanashi" means so very dear; the poem pauses here.
Third line, "mochite yuku": "That I carry," leading to the bow he takes along.
Fourth line, "azusa no yumi no": A bow of catalpa wood, the frontier guard's weapon.
Final line, "yuzuka ni mogamo": "Yuzuka" is the grip of a bow, and "mogamo" expresses a wish: if only she were the grip. It answers "kimi ga yumi ni mo" in the next poem.
Source: Manyoshu
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