Aki saraba ima mo miru goto tsumagoi ni ka nakamu yama zo takanohara no ue

秋さらば今も見るごと妻恋ひに
鹿鳴かむ山ぞ高野原の上

Roma-ji: Aki saraba ima mo miru goto tsumagoi ni ka nakamu yama zo takanohara no ue
English Translation: When autumn arrives,
just as we can see it now,
yearning for their mates
the deer will cry on these hills—
the heights of Takanohara.
Meaning: When autumn comes, just as we see it now, the stags will cry out, longing for their mates, on these hills—the heights of Takanohara.
Commentary: Book One Miscellaneous Poems 84

Headnote: "The Nara Palace: a poem from a banquet held together by Prince Naga and Prince Shiki at the Saki Palace"
At a banquet shared by Prince Naga and Prince Shiki at the Saki Palace, the poet declares that when autumn comes, just as they see it now, these heights of Takanohara will be hills where stags cry out for their mates. One view holds that "just as we see it now" refers to a painted screen at the banquet, overlaying the scene before them with the autumn to come. The poem also records a friendly banquet between princes of two different lines, a son of Emperor Tenmu and a son of Emperor Tenji, and it closes Book One. The left note names the author as Prince Naga.
Prince Naga was a son of Emperor Tenmu; his mother was Princess Ōe, a daughter of Emperor Tenji, and Prince Yuge was his full younger brother. He left poems marked by wit and dignity.

In the first line, saru means that a season arrives, and with ba gives "when autumn comes." From a time before autumn, it imagines the season to come.
The second line, "just as we see it now," is thought to refer to a painting at the banquet or to the scene before their eyes.
The third line, "yearning for their mates," refers to stags calling for does in autumn.
In the fourth line, mu is conjectural and zo an emphatic particle: "these are hills where deer will cry." The poem breaks here, inverted with the last line.
The last line names the heights of Takanohara, the hills around Saki north of the Heijō capital. The line is hypermetric, and ending on a noun, it closes by naming the land. Whereas the opening poem of the book, Emperor Yūryaku's poem 1, was a wooing song asking a girl picking greens for her name, this closing poem sings of deer crying for their mates—so that the beginning and end of the book answer each other in the heart that seeks a mate.
Author: Prince Naga
Source: Manyoshu
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