Natsuno yuku oshika no tsuno no tsuka no ma mo imo ga kokoro o wasurete omoe ya

夏野行く牡鹿の角の束の間も
妹が心を忘れて思へや

Roma-ji: Natsuno yuku oshika no tsuno no tsuka no ma mo imo ga kokoro o wasurete omoe ya
English Translation: Through the summer fields
goes the stag, his antlers short;
even that brief span,
could I think of anything
and forget my love's true heart
Meaning: Like the short new antlers of a stag crossing the summer fields, not even for so brief a moment could I think of anything and forget the heart of my beloved.
Commentary: Book Four Love Poems 502

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Three poems by Kakinomoto no Asomi Hitomaro"
With the short new antlers of a stag crossing the summer fields as its preface, this poem vows never to forget the beloved's heart even for a moment. Its originality lies in turning a keen observation, the shortness of a stag's summer antlers, into a figure for a brief span of time. Where the preceding poem used the age of the sacred fence for the length of love, this one uses the short antlers for a mere instant, setting long against short.
The author, Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, was a court poet active in the reigns of Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu; a master of both long and short poems, he was revered by later ages as the saint of poetry.

First line, "Through the summer fields," calls up a deer moving through the thick grass of summer.
Second line, "goes the stag, his antlers short," names the antlers of a stag; since in summer they have just regrown and are short, with the first line it forms a preface to tsuka no ma, "a brief span."
Third line, "even that brief span," uses tsuka, the width of a fist, to mean the shortest while, turning the shortness of the antlers into shortness of time.
Fourth line, "could I think of anything," names his wife's heart rather than her form, a choice that conveys deep trust.
Fifth line, "and forget my love's true heart," is a rhetorical question with ya: could I forget her? Never.
Author: Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
Source: Manyoshu
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