Ware mo shika nakite zo hito ni koirareshi ima koso yoso ni koe o nomi kike - Shin Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

我もしかなきてぞ人に恋ひられし
今こそよそに声をのみ聞け

Roma-ji: Ware mo shika nakite zo hito ni koirareshi ima koso yoso ni koe o nomi kike
English Translation: I too, like the deer,
once was sought with cries and tears,
longed for by someone;
now it is from far away
that I only hear the call
Meaning: I too, like the deer, was once longed for with tears and cries; now I only hear that voice from far away.
Commentary: Book Fifteen Love Poems V 1373

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the third poem of the sequence on birds and beasts. The speaker looks back on a past love: once longed for with cries like a deer's, now the speaker only hears the deer's voice from afar. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Anonymous," indicates a poet whose name has not come down.

In the first line, "ware mo shika," "shika" is a pivot word joining "shika" (so, in that way) and "shika" (deer).
In the second line, "nakite zo hito ni," "naki" is a pivot word joining the deer's "calling" and a person's "weeping." The particle "zo" governs the third line.
The third line, "koirareshi," closes the kakari-musubi of "zo" with the attributive "shi": "I was longed for." The poem breaks after the third line. Following the copper pheasant of the preceding poem, it sings of the stag that calls for its mate.
The fourth line, "ima koso yoso ni," means "now, far away," and the particle "koso" governs the last line. The past of the first three lines is set against the present of the last two.
The last line, "koe o nomi kike," closes the kakari-musubi of "koso" with the perfective form "kike." Where the preceding poem wept at seeing a figure, this one only hears a voice, showing the distance between a past of being longed for and a present of only hearing the voice from afar.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Shin Kokin Wakashu
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