Nowaki seshi ono no kusabushi arehatete miyama ni fukaki saoshika no koe

English Translation

The autumn tempest
has laid waste the grassy beds
out on the moorland—
deep within the deep mountains
the voice of the stag resounds

Meaning

The autumn gale has left the grassy beds on the moor in ruin, and now the voice of the stag comes from deep within the deep mountains.

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems II 439

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "When I presented a hundred-poem sequence."
This is the third poem of the deer sequence. The autumn gale has ruined the deer's bed on the moor, and the stag, gone deep into the mountains, is heard only by its voice. According to the headnote, it belongs to the same hundred-poem sequence as the preceding poem.
The author's lay name was Fujiwara no Sadanaga; a nephew of Fujiwara no Shunzei, he became Shunzei's adopted son. He was appointed a compiler of the Shinkokinshū but died before it was presented.
The scene is autumn after a gale, on the ruined moor and in the deep mountains beyond it.
As with the preceding poem, the direct occasion was Retired Emperor Go-Toba's First Hundred-Poem Sequences of 1200.

In the first line, "shi" is the attributive of the past auxiliary "ki," marking the time after the gale. Nowaki is the fierce autumn wind that parts the grasses of the fields. Following the mountain wind of the preceding poem, the scene shifts to the aftermath of the wind.
In the second line, "o" in "ono" is a prefix, and "kusabushi" is the place where deer lie down in the grass.
The third line states that this bed has been utterly laid waste.
The fourth line, "miyama ni fukaki," layers "deep" upon "deep mountains" to stress a depth beyond depth, implying that the stag, having lost its bed, has moved into the mountains.
The last line ends on a noun, leaving the ruined moor and the distant voice to resonate. It is identical to the last lines of 442 and 444, and the three form the framework of the sequence on deer voices carried by the wind. The motif of deer lying on the moor reappears in 450; whereas here the bed is ruined and the stag has gone, there the stag lies alone in its bed, reversing the composition.

Author

Jakuren

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other