小牡鹿伏す夏野の草の道をなみ
茂き恋路にまどふころかな
茂き恋路にまどふころかな
- Roma-ji
-
Oshika fusu natsuno no kusa no michi o nami shigeki koiji ni madou koro kana
- English Translation
-
Where the stag lies down
in the grasses of summer fields
there is no path:
through the thickets of love's road
these days I wander, lost
- Meaning
- As there is no path through the summer grasses where the stag lies down, I wander lost these days along love's overgrown road.
- Commentary
-
Book Eleven Love Poems I 1069
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the third poem of the sequence on love sung through mountains and summer fields. As there is no path through the summer grasses where the stag lies down, the speaker wanders lost on love's overgrown road. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Sakanoue no Korenori," was a poet of the early Heian period and one of the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals. He served as Acting Junior Secretary of Yamato and Vice-Governor of Kaga, and his son Mochiki was counted among the Five Men of the Pear Chamber.
In the first line, "o" is a prefix: where the stag lies down to rest.
The second line, "natsuno no kusa no," means "of the grasses growing thick in summer fields."
The third line, "michi o nami," gives a cause in the form "... o ... mi": because there is no path. The first three lines lead to "shigeki koiji."
The fourth line, "shigeki koiji ni," lays over the thick grass a road of love tangled with deep longing.
The last line, "madou koro kana," means "these days I wander," closing with "koro kana" like "omou koro kana" in the preceding poem. The scene moves from the summer grass at the mountain's foot to the grass of summer fields, and from deep love to love that has lost its way.
- Author
- Sakanoue no Koreyuki
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Ashihiki no yamashita shigeki natsukusa no fukaku mo kimi o omou koro kana
- Next Poem
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Kayaribi no sayo fukegata no shitakogare kurushi ya waga mi hito shirezu nomi