Tomoshi suru hogushi o matsu to omoeba ya aimiteshika no mi o ba kauran - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

照射する火串をまつと思へばや
あひ見てしかの身をば替ふらん

Roma-ji: Tomoshi suru hogushi o matsu to omoeba ya aimiteshika no mi o ba kauran
English Translation: Is it that the deer
thinks the hunters' pine-torch waits
just for its coming?
Longing so to meet, it gives
its own body in exchange
Meaning: Is it because the deer takes the pine torch on the hunters' pole for a lover waiting for it? Longing to meet, it seems to give its life in exchange.
Commentary: Book Three Summer Poems 200

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed as a poem on torch-hunting"
Like the preceding poem, this was composed on the topic of "torch-hunting." The deer approaches the hunters' fire and is shot, the poet suggests, perhaps because it mistakes the pine torch on the pole for a lover waiting for it, and in its longing to meet gives its life in exchange. Pivoting on "matsu," both pine and waiting, and on "shika," both the wishful "-teshika" and deer, it likens the pathos of a deer slain in the torch-hunt to a heart that throws its life away for love. The torch-hunting sequence ends here.
The author, "Kamo no Shigeyasu," was the son of Kamo no Shigetsugu, chief priest of the Kamo Shrines. He served as chief priest of the Kamo Wakeikazuchi Shrine and took part in Shun'e's Karin'en. He is known for compiling the private anthology Tsukimōde Wakashū.

First line, "tomoshi suru": the same opening as 194, 197 and 198 of this book, closing the torch-hunting sequence.
Second line, "hogushi o matsu to": "matsu" is a pivot word for the pine torch and for "waiting" for a lover.
Third line, "omoeba ya": the interrogative "ya" links with "ran" in the last line: "is it because it thinks so?"
Fourth line, "aimiteshika no": "-teshika" expresses a wish, "I long to meet," and its "shika" also means deer.
Fifth line, "mi o ba kauran": "kau" means to exchange, and "ran," the attributive of present conjecture, closes with "ya." After 196 of this book depicted a deer lit up by the hunters' fire, this poem imagines the heart of a deer that gives its life to that fire.
Author: Kamo no Shigeyasu
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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