Tsuma kouru shika no tachido o tazunureba sayama ga suso ni akikaze zo fuku

English Translation

Seeking out the place
where the stag who yearns for love
has made his standing,
I find at the mountain's foot
only the autumn wind blows

Meaning

When I go seeking the spot where the stag longing for his mate is standing, I find only the autumn wind blowing at the foot of the mountain.

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems II 441

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the fifth poem of the deer sequence. Seeking the place where the stag longing for its mate stands, the speaker finds no deer, only the autumn wind at the mountain's foot. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author was a scholar and poet of the late Heian period who served three emperors—Go-Sanjō, Shirakawa, and Horikawa—and rose to Senior Second Rank and Provisional Middle Counselor.
The scene is autumn, at the foot of a mountain where the deer's cry is heard.
The direct occasion is not recorded.

The first line, "tsuma kouru," means "longing for his mate." It opens by taking up the last line of the preceding poem.
In the second line, "tachido" is the place where the deer stands.
In the third line, the realis form with "ba" means "when I go seeking": the speaker follows the cry to find the deer. Whereas the preceding poem guessed at the deer's heart, this one turns to actually searching for it.
In the fourth line, "sa" is a prefix, and the phrase refers to the foot of the mountain.
In the last line, the emphatic "zo" is resolved by the attributive "fuku." Going toward the voice, the speaker finds no deer, only the autumn wind; loneliness lingers in the movement from voice to absence to wind. The same last line is used in 471, 533, and 539, a closing pattern repeated throughout Autumn Poems II.

Author

Oe no Masafusa

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other