Konokoro no asake ni kikeba ashihiki no yama yobitoyome saoshika naku mo

このころの朝明に聞けばあしひきの
山呼び響めさを鹿鳴くも

Roma-ji: Konokoro no asake ni kikeba ashihiki no yama yobitoyome saoshika naku mo
English Translation: In these days of late,
listening at the break of dawn,
the rugged hills
it calls on till they ring:
the stag is crying out
Meaning: Listening at dawn these days, I hear the stag crying, calling so that the mountains ring.
Commentary: Book Eight Autumn Miscellaneous Poems 1603

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Two poems on the crying of the deer by Ōtomo no Sukune Yakamochi"
Listening at dawn these days, the poet hears a stag crying so loudly that the mountains ring. The deer's voice echoing through the stillness of daybreak conveys the deepening of autumn. The note dates it to the sixteenth day of the eighth month, Tenpyō 15 (743).
The author, Ōtomo no Yakamochi, was a son of Ōtomo no Tabito and an official of the Nara period. He rose to the post of Middle Counselor, is thought to have been closely involved in compiling the Man'yōshū, and left more poems than anyone else in the anthology.

The first line, "these days," shows that it is heard almost every morning.
The second line means "when I listen at dawn."
The third line, "ashihiki no," is a pillow word for "mountain."
The fourth line means "calling on the mountains and making them ring," depicting the deer's cry echoing through the hills. It takes up "until the echoes answer back" of the preceding poem.
The final line, with the exclamatory "mo," expresses wonder at the stag's voice. Princess Kasanui's 1611 in this book likewise sings of a deer crying "so that the foot of the mountain rings."
Author: Otomo no Yakamochi
Source: Manyoshu
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