Saoshika no koe takasago ni kikoeshi wa tsuma naki toki no ne ni koso arikere - Gosen Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

さを鹿の声たかさごに聞こえしは
妻なき時の音にこそありけれ

Roma-ji: Saoshika no koe takasago ni kikoeshi wa tsuma naki toki no ne ni koso arikere
English Translation: The stag's voice rang out
high across Takasago,
but that was the cry
of the days when he had
no mate beside him
Meaning: The stag's voice rang out high over Takasago, but that was only the cry of the days when he had no mate.
Commentary: Book Fourteen Love Poems VI 1057

Headnote: "Reply."
The reply says that the stag's voice rang loud across Takasago only in the days when he had no mate. Taking up the stag, the absence of a mate and Takasago from the preceding poem, she answers coolly that his eager pursuit belonged only to a time when he had no one else.
According to the headnote, it is the reply to the preceding poem, 1056. Where he pleaded that his love is still mateless, she turns it to the past with "tsuma naki toki no," of the days when he had no mate, striking at the selfishness of a man who had joined another.
The poet is listed as anonymous, and the composer's name has not come down to us.

The first line, "Saoshika no," means "of the stag," taking up the first line of the preceding poem as it stands.
The second line, "koe takasago ni," means "his voice high at Takasago," with "taka" joining a high voice and the place name Takasago.
The third line, "kikoeshi wa," means "what was heard," with "shi" an auxiliary of the past.
The fourth line, "tsuma naki toki no," means "of the time he had no mate," taking up "tsuma naki koi o" in the second line of the preceding poem as something past.
The last line, "ne ni koso arikere," means "was only that cry," closing the binding particle "koso" with the perfective "kere."
Author: Unknown Poet
Source: Gosen Wakashu
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