Yamaoroshi ni shika no ne takaku kikoyu nari onoe no tsuki ni sayo ya fukenuru

English Translation

On the mountain gale
the cry of the deer rings high—
so it seems to me;
has the night grown late beneath
the moon upon the summit?

Meaning

Borne on the wind sweeping down the mountain, the cry of the deer sounds high and clear; with the moon over the summit, has the night already grown late?

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems II 438

Headnote: "When I presented a hundred-poem sequence."
This is the second poem of the deer sequence. The cry of the deer rings high on the mountain wind, and seeing the moon over the peak, the speaker surmises that the night has grown late. According to the headnote, it was composed as part of a hundred-poem sequence.
The author was the third son of Palace Minister Sanjō Kinnori. He rose to Senior Second Rank and Minister of the Left, later took Buddhist vows and was called the Sanjō Lay Minister of the Left. He left the diary Gumaiki.
The scene is late on an autumn night, on a mountain with the moon above, from which the deer's voice is carried on the wind.
The direct occasion was the First Hundred-Poem Sequences of the Shōji era, for which Retired Emperor Go-Toba commissioned poems from poets in 1200.

The first line, "yamaoroshi ni," means "on the wind blowing down the mountain." It is hypermetric, with six syllables.
In the second line, "ne" is the cry of the deer, carried by the wind so that it rings high.
In the third line, "nari" is the auxiliary of inference from sound, showing that the deer is unseen and only its voice arrives.
With the fourth line, the gaze rises toward the peak where the voice is heard and catches the moon above it. The movement from sound to sight reverses that of the preceding poem, which moved from sight to sound.
In the last line, "sa" is a prefix and the interrogative "ya" is bound to "nuru," the attributive of the perfective "nu." From the moon's position and the clarity of the cry, the speaker infers that the night is far advanced. Time moves from the dusk of the preceding poem to late night, and the moon over the peak carries the afterglow of the moon poems in Book Four. The mountain wind here begins the series of winds carrying the deer's voice: the autumn gale of 439, the storm of 440, the autumn wind of 441, the storm of 442, and the pine storm of 444. "Summit" appears again in 444. And whereas this poem surmises that the night has grown late, 447 surmises that dawn has come, forming a pair.

Author

Sanjō Sanefusa

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other