夏野ゆく牡鹿の角の束の間も
忘れず思へ妹が心を
忘れず思へ妹が心を
- Roma-ji
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Natsuno yuku ojika no tsuno no tsuka no ma mo wasurezu omoe imo ga kokoro o
- English Translation
-
Crossing summer fields,
the young stag's antlers are short,
short as a moment;
not for that long forget her,
the heart of your beloved
- Meaning
- Like the short new antlers of a stag crossing the summer fields, not for the briefest moment should you forget your beloved's heart.
- Commentary
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Book Fifteen Love Poems V 1374
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Topic unknown."
This is the fourth poem of the sequence on birds and beasts. Like the short antlers of a stag crossing the summer fields, not for the briefest moment should one forget the beloved's heart. The headnote gives no topic, and the circumstances of composition are not recorded.
The author, "Hitomaro," is Kakinomoto no Hitomaro. A court poet of the Asuka period who served under Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu, he was later revered as the saint of poetry.
Book Four of the Man'yōshū has a poem by Hitomaro whose lower lines read "imo ga kokoro o / wasurete omoe ya," of which this is a variant transmission.
The first line, "natsuno yuku," means "crossing the summer fields."
The second line, "ojika no tsuno no," refers to the stag's short antlers, newly grown in summer. It takes up the deer of the preceding poem, continuing the same image.
In the third line, "tsuka no ma mo," "tsuka" is the length of a handgrip. The first two lines are a preface leading from short antlers to "a brief moment."
The fourth line, "wasurezu omoe," means "think without forgetting," "omoe" being imperative. The poem breaks after the fourth line.
The last line, "imo ga kokoro o," is inverted from the fourth line, showing afterward what is not to be forgotten. Where the preceding poem sang of the deer's voice in autumn, this one sings of its antlers in summer, treating the same deer by voice and form, autumn and summer.
- Author
- Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
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Ware mo shika nakite zo hito ni koirareshi ima koso yoso ni koe o nomi kike
- Next Poem
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Natsukusa no tsuyuwakegoromo ki mo senu ni nado waga sode no kawaku toki naki