Shitamomiji katsu chiru yama no yūshigure nurete ya hitori shika no nakuran

English Translation

Lower leaves blaze red
and scatter on the mountain
in evening showers—
drenched there, is it all alone
that the stag is calling out?

Meaning

On the mountain where the lower leaves turn red even as they fall, an evening shower comes down; drenched by it, does the stag call out all alone?

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems II 437

Headnote: "When the gentlemen composed poems at the Poetry Office, on the topic 'deer at evening.'"
This is the first poem of the deer sequence and the opening poem of Autumn Poems II. The poet imagines a stag calling out alone, drenched by an evening shower on a mountain where red leaves are falling. According to the headnote, it was composed on the topic "deer at evening" at a gathering of the Poetry Office.
The author was a son of Fujiwara no Mitsutaka who rose to Junior Second Rank and Minister of the Imperial Household. He served at the Poetry Office and was one of the compilers of the Shinkokinshū.
The scene is an evening in late autumn, on a mountain where the reddened lower leaves are falling.
The direct occasion was a gathering at the Poetry Office, established by Retired Emperor Go-Toba in the seventh month of 1201, where the topic "deer at evening" was set. "The gentlemen" are the courtiers who served there.

The first line, "shitamomiji," refers to the lower leaves of a tree that have turned red. Because the lower leaves color before the upper ones, it marks the deepening of autumn.
In the second line, "katsu" means "at the same time," showing the leaves falling even as they color.
The third line, "yūshigure," is a passing shower at evening. The first half thus forms a visual scene of red leaves and rain.
In the fourth line, the interrogative particle "ya" forms a binding with "ran" in the last line. The poet thinks of the stag, soaked by the shower and without a mate. "Drenched" also suggests the tear-wet sleeves of the one who hears it.
In the last line, "ran" is the attributive of the conjectural auxiliary "ramu": from the voice of the unseen deer, the poet guesses at its state. The poem moves from sight in the first half to sound in the second. Following the moon poems of Book Four, the deer sequence begins here. Where the next poem, 438, lifts its gaze to the moon over the peak late at night, this poem looks at the lower leaves of the mountain at dusk, so the two contrast in hour and in height. "Alone" is taken up in "sleeping alone" in 450, and dusk in "autumn dusk" in 443.

Author

Fujiwara no Ietaka

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other