In mountain villages,
autumn is the loneliest—
again and again,
awakened by the stag’s cry,
I rise from uneasy sleep.

Meaning

In a mountain village, autumn is especially lonely; again and again I am awakened from sleep by the cry of a stag.

Commentary

Book Four Autumn Poems (Part One)

This poem was paired in a poetry contest at the residence of Prince Koretada.

In autumn, stags cry out in search of a mate, and their voices are considered sorrowful. Even in sleep, one is repeatedly awakened by their calls, and in the solitude of a mountain village, this deepens the sense of longing and loneliness.

“Wabishi” can mean painful, desolate, or forlorn; here it conveys a feeling of loneliness and emotional desolation.

Author

Mibu no Tadamine

Source

Kokin Wakashu

Other

On the autumn wind, with their voices raised like sails, come the passing ships— yet they are but the wild geese crossing Heaven’s narrow strait.
My troubled thoughts I string together one by one— like the wild geese’ cries, that pass across the autumn sky night after night in their flight.
In the deep mountains, treading through the fallen leaves, the stag cries aloud— when I hear that lonely voice, then autumn is most sorrowful.
Before autumn bush clover, as I sit in quiet sorrow— from the mountain’s foot, resounding through the valleys, the stag’s cry seems to echo.

In mountain villages, autumn is the loneliest— again and again, awakened by the stag’s cry, I rise from uneasy sleep.

In mountain villages,
autumn is the loneliest—
again and again,
awakened by the stag’s cry,
I rise from uneasy sleep.