Amotoji mo tama ni mo ga mo ya itadakite mizura no naka ni aemakamaku mo

母刀自も玉にもがもや戴きて
みづらの中に合へ巻かまくも

Roma-ji: Amotoji mo tama ni mo ga mo ya itadakite mizura no naka ni aemakamaku mo
English Translation: Mother, honored one,
would that you too were a jewel!
Raised upon my head
in the coils of my side-locks
I would bind you and go on
Meaning: If only my mother were a jewel! I would set her on my head and wind her into the coils of my hair as I go.
Commentary: Book Twenty Frontier Guard Poems 4377

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems of the frontier guards sent in rotation to the provinces of Tsukushi in the second month of Tenpyō Shōhō 7, year of the wood sheep."
If only my mother were a jewel, I would set her on my head and bind her in my side-locks: the poem wishes to carry his mother on his person. It is the fifth poem from Shimotsuke. A Tōtōmi guard's poem wishes his parents were flowers to carry in both hands, and both share the idea of likening parents to something one could take along.
The author, Tsumori no Okurusu, was a guard from Shimotsuke; nothing more is known of him.

The first line, "amotoji mo," a respectful word for mother, is pronounced amotoji in dialect.
The second line, "tama ni mo ga mo ya," with the wishing mogamo and exclamatory ya: would that she were a jewel. The poem pauses here.
The third line, "itadakite," "raising her on my head," shows how he cherishes her.
The fourth line, "mizura no naka ni," names the mizura, a man's hairstyle with the hair parted and bound in loops by the ears.
The closing line, "aemakamaku mo," "I would wind her in," uses maku, a nominal form of the volitional mu, drawing on the custom of winding jewels into the hair as ornament.
Author: Tsumori no Okurusu
Source: Manyoshu
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