Ayashiku mo shika no tachido no mienu kana ogura no yama ni ware ya kinuran - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

あやしくも鹿のたちどの見えぬかな
をぐらの山に我や来ぬらん

Roma-ji: Ayashiku mo shika no tachido no mienu kana ogura no yama ni ware ya kinuran
English Translation: Strangely, I cannot
see the places where the deer
are standing tonight;
to the hill of Ogura,
dimly dark, have I now come?
Meaning: Strangely, I cannot see where the deer are standing. Have I come to Mount Ogura, whose very name means dim and dark?
Commentary: Book Two Summer Poems 128

Headnote: "For a folding screen for the celebration at the house of the Kujō Minister of the Right"
Puzzled that he cannot see where the deer stand even with the hunting torches lit, the poet playfully wonders whether it is because he has come to Mount Ogura, whose name means dim and dark. With "ogura" meaning both Mount Ogura and "dimly dark," the poem wittily finds the cause in a place name. According to the headnote, it accompanied a folding screen for a celebration at the house of Fujiwara no Morosuke.
Taira no Kanemori, of a Taira line descended from Emperor Kōkō, was a poet of the mid-Heian period. He is known for his performance at the palace poetry contest of the fourth year of Tentoku and is counted among the Thirty-Six Immortal Poets.

First line, "ayashiku mo," means "strangely."
Second line, "shika no tachido no," repeats the fourth line of the preceding poem, and the two poems form a pair. The place of the deer revealed by the torches in the preceding poem cannot be seen in this one.
Third line, "mienu kana," means "cannot be seen," with the exclamatory particle "kana." The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "ogura no yama ni," is a pivot word in which "ogura" means both Mount Ogura in Yamashiro and "dimly dark." The name of Mount Ogura is also sung of in 135 of this book.
Final line, "ware ya kinuran," means "have I come," with the questioning particle "ya" resolved by "ran," the attributive of the present conjectural auxiliary.
Author: Taira no Kanemori
Source: Shui Wakashu
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