Saoshika no tsuma naki koi o takasago no onoe no komatsu kiki mo irenan - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

さを鹿の妻なき恋を高砂の
尾上の小松聞きも入れなん

Roma-ji: Saoshika no tsuma naki koi o takasago no onoe no komatsu kiki mo irenan
English Translation: The stag that longs
with no mate beside him—
his cry of love,
O little pine of Takasago's peak,
will you not take it to heart
Meaning: Little pine on the peak of Takasago, will you not at least take to heart the love-cry of a stag that has no mate?
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems VI 1056

Headnote: "Sent attached to a fan painted with a scene of Takasago, without a letter, when, after courting someone without success and then going to another, he somehow turned back in his heart to the first and time went by."
The poet asks the little pine on the peak of Takasago to take to heart the love of a stag without a mate. Having been joined to another and then come to long once more for the first, he likens himself to a stag crying for a mate and her to the little pine on Takasago's peak, and begs her to accept his feeling again.
According to the headnote, having failed to win someone and then joined with another, he somehow came to love the first again, and as time went by he sent this attached to a fan painted with Takasago rather than with a letter; the reply is placed in the next poem, 1057. The Takasago of the painted fan is worked into the poem. 1009 in this book also speaks of love through a deer.
The poet, Minamoto no Hiroakira, was a son of Prince Tokiyo, son of Emperor Uda, and rose to Middle Counselor.

The first line, "Saoshika no," means "of the stag," with "sa" a prefix. It is the same as the first line of the next poem.
The second line, "tsuma naki koi o," means "the love of one without a mate," overlaying a deer crying for its mate with the poet's own love for one he has lost.
The third line, "takasago no," means "of Takasago" in Harima, bringing in the scene of Takasago painted on the fan in the headnote.
The fourth line, "onoe no komatsu," means "little pine on the peak," standing for the woman.
The last line, "kiki mo irenan," means "please take it to heart," with "nan" a final particle of wishing that another will act.
Author: Minamoto no Moroakira
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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