山里は秋こそことに侘しけれ
鹿の鳴く音に目をさましつつ
鹿の鳴く音に目をさましつつ
- Roma-ji
-
Yamazato wa aki koso koto ni wabishikere
shika no naku ne ni me o samashitsutsu - English Translation
-
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
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- 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.