Aki nareba yama toyomu made naku shika ni ware otorame ya hitori nuru yo wa - Kokin Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

秋なれば山とよむまで鳴く鹿に
我劣らめやひとり寝る夜は

Roma-ji: Aki nareba yama toyomu made naku shika ni ware otorame ya hitori nuru yo wa
English Translation: Because it is autumn,
the deer cry out till the hills
ring with their calls;
would I fall behind them
on nights I sleep alone?
Meaning: It is autumn, and the deer cry until the hills resound; yet would I weep any less than they, on the nights I sleep alone?
Commentary: Book Twelve Love Poems II 582

Headnote: "A poem from the poetry contest held at the residence of Prince Koresada"
The poet says that in autumn, when the stag calls for his mate until the hills resound, he himself, weeping on nights when he sleeps alone, is no less than the deer. Citing the call of the deer longing for its mate, he forcefully pleads, through a rhetorical question, the loudness of his weeping and the depth of his longing. It was composed for the poetry contest held at Prince Koresada's residence. Around this point in the book, poems that bring in autumn images follow one after another.
The author is anonymous, and the name has not come down to us.

First line, "aki nareba": a perfective form with ba stating a cause, "because it is autumn." Autumn was the season when deer called for their mates.
Second line, "yama toyomu made": toyomu means to resound, "until the hills echo."
Third line, "naku shika ni": the call of a stag longing for a doe is sung as an image of the sorrow of love. Whereas the previous poem, 581, contrasted the poet's silence with insects, here the poet's loud weeping is compared with the deer, and the two poems form a contrast.
Fourth line, "ware otorame ya": me is the perfective form of the conjectural mu, and ya is rhetorical: "would I be any less? No." The poem breaks here, and the order with the final line is inverted.
Fifth line, "hitori nuru yo wa": through inversion, the time of weeping is revealed only at the end, closing with emphasis on the loneliness of nights spent alone.
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Kokin Wakashu
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