Tare kike to koe shirotae ni saoshika no naganagashi yo o hitori nakuran - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

誰聞けと声白妙にさを鹿の
ながながし夜をひとり鳴くらん

Roma-ji: Tare kike to koe shirotae ni saoshika no naganagashi yo o hitori nakuran
English Translation: For whom to hear it,
in a voice of white clarity,
does the stag cry out
all through the long, long night,
calling there alone
Meaning: For whom to hear does the stag cry alone, its voice ringing clear and white, all through the long, long night?
Commentary: Book Seven Autumn Poems III 373

Headnote: "Topic unknown."
The poet asks for whom the stag can be crying alone through the long, long autumn night. In the voice of a stag calling all night for its mate, it overlays the loneliness of sleeping alone.
Like "ashihiki no yamadori no o no shidario no naganagashi yo o hitori ka mo nemu," the poem attributed to Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, it sings of the loneliness of spending a "naganagashi yo," a long, long night, "hitori," alone. It follows the preceding poem in singing of the deer.
The poet is listed as "anonymous," and the composer's name has not come down to us.
The text gives the second line as "koe shirotae ni," which does not match "koe takasago ni" in the kana reading line. The wording of the text is followed here.

The first line, "Tare kike to," means "for whom to hear." 361 of this book opens with the same words, singing of the cries of geese.
In the second line, "shirotae" is white cloth, here likening the voice to something ringing clear and white. Following "Takasago" in the reading line, it would mean "loudly at Takasago," a place famed for deer.
The third line, "saoshika no," means "the stag."
The fourth line, "naganagashi yo o," means "through the long, long night," stressing the length of autumn nights.
In the last line, "ran" is an auxiliary conjecturing the cause, answering the question in the first line: "why does it cry alone?"
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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