Tatsutayama kozue mabara ni naru mama ni fukaku mo shika no soyogu naru kana

English Translation

On Mount Tatsuta
as the treetops grow sparser
with each passing day,
deep within, the stag is heard
rustling through the fallen leaves

Meaning

On Mount Tatsuta, as the treetops grow ever sparser, I hear the stag rustling deep within the mountain.

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems II 451

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the fifteenth poem of the deer sequence. As the leaves fall from the treetops of Mount Tatsuta and the branches thin out, even the sounds made by deer deep in the mountain come to be heard. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author was a son of Minamoto no Toshiyori who became a monk of Tōdaiji and named his lodging in Shirakawa, Kyoto, the Karin'en, where he gathered many poets for poetry meetings.
The scene is late autumn as the trees shed their leaves, on Mount Tatsuta, a poetic place in Yamato Province famed for its autumn foliage.
The direct occasion is not recorded.

The first line, "Tatsutayama," is a poetic place celebrated for red leaves; here, however, it is the scene after their peak that is described.
The second line describes the treetops grown sparse as the leaves fall from the branch tips.
The third line, "naru mama ni," means "as it becomes," showing the passage of time as the leaves continue to fall. The scene has moved on from "the lower leaves blaze red and scatter" in 437 to trees nearly bare.
In the fourth line, "fukaku" means deep within the mountain. With the leaves gone and the view opened, even the presence of a deer far inside reaches the listener. As in "deep within the deep mountains" in 439, the deer is placed in the mountain's depths.
In the last line, "soyogu" means to rustle, as fallen leaves do; "naru" is the attributive of "nari," the auxiliary of inference from sound; and "kana" is exclamatory. Whereas the sequence so far has sung of the deer's cry, this poem varies it by listening to the sound of the deer moving. As in 441, where searching for the stag found only the autumn wind, the deer is unseen and grasped only through sound.

Author

Shun'e

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other