The call of a deer
that has lost its companion
in the morning mist—
could anyone hear it as
one hears the ordinary?

Meaning

The call of a deer that has lost its companion in the morning mist—how could one hear it as one hears an ordinary thing?

Commentary

Part Three: Shiigamoto

　Niou sent this after Oigimi's reply. He says that the deer's voice is not something he can let pass as one more sound of autumn, and so repeats his condolence. Through such exchanges he keeps his connection with Uji, and it leads in time to his relations with Naka no Kimi.

　The deer that has lost its companion carries the figure of the sisters bereft of their father. Ohokata ni yawa is a rhetorical question: could it be heard as an ordinary thing? He takes over the deer from the poem before and turns it so that he joins his own feeling to theirs. It is condolence and courtship at once, and characteristic of him.

Author

Murasaki Shikibu

Source

Genji Monogatari

Other

How must it be now, the mountain village in fall where the stag bells out— this evening, when the dew lies heavy on the small hagi
In this mountain place where nothing but tears close in like a standing mist, at the hedge the deer as well lift their voices all as one
Seeing how the low reeds have altered in colour, I think of your sleeves, and how they must be worn thin in the dark dye of mourning
These altered sleeves are the lodging that the dew takes, and beyond even that, this body of mine has nowhere at all to be set

The call of a deer that has lost its companion in the morning mist— could anyone hear it as one hears the ordinary?

The call of a deer
that has lost its companion
in the morning mist—
could anyone hear it as
one hears the ordinary?