Sugite yuku aki no katami ni saoshika no onoga naku ne mo oshiku ya aruran

English Translation

As a keepsake of
the autumn that is passing
does the stag hold dear
even his own calling voice,
loath to let it fade away?

Meaning

As a keepsake of the passing autumn, does the stag feel loath to lose even the sound of his own cry?

Commentary

Book Five Autumn Poems II 452

Headnote: "When deer poems were composed after the poetry contest at the residence of Princess Yūshi."
This is the sixteenth and final poem of the deer sequence. The poet wonders whether the stag, too, holds even its own cry dear as a keepsake of the passing autumn. According to the headnote, it was composed on the subject of deer after a poetry contest at the residence of Princess Yūshi.
The author was a son of Fujiwara no Michinaga who rose to Provisional Major Counselor and is regarded as the founder of the Mikohidari house.
The scene is near the end of autumn, in hills and fields where deer cry.
The direct occasion was a gathering after a poetry contest held at the residence of Princess Yūshi, a daughter of Emperor Go-Suzaku, when those present composed poems on deer.

The first line, "sugite yuku," means "now passing away," showing that the end of autumn is near.
In the second line, "katami" is a keepsake that recalls what has gone, and the deer's cry is cast as a reminder of autumn.
The third line shows that the subject is the stag.
In the fourth line, "onoga" means "its own," "ne" is the cry, and "mo" implies "just as people regret autumn's passing, so too the deer."
In the last line, the interrogative "ya" is bound to "ran," the attributive of the conjectural "ramu." The poet imagines that the stag itself regrets the loss of its cry, which will fall silent when autumn ends, holding it dear as a keepsake of the season. Since 437 at the head of the book, the deer's cry has been something people hear and are moved by; here it is the crying stag that holds the voice dear, and the sequence closes by reversing the positions of listener and caller. "The passing autumn" also points toward the late-autumn poems of the book's latter half.

Author

Fujiwara no Nagaie

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other