Kohagihara mada hana sakanu Miyagino no shika ya koyoi no tsuki ni nakuran - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

小萩原まだ花咲かぬ宮城野の
鹿や今宵の月に鳴くらん

Roma-ji: Kohagihara mada hana sakanu Miyagino no shika ya koyoi no tsuki ni nakuran
English Translation: In Miyagi Moor
where the bush clover's flowers
have not yet bloomed,
are the deer calling out
beneath tonight's moon?
Meaning: Are the deer of Miyagino, where the bush clover has not yet bloomed, crying out beneath tonight's moon as though it were autumn?
Commentary: Book Three Summer Poems 218

Headnote: "Composed on the topic 'The Summer Moon Is Like Autumn's' at the house of the Former Chancellor of Ōmiya"
Composed at the residence of the Former Chancellor of Ōmiya, Fujiwara no Koremichi, on the topic "The Summer Moon Is Like Autumn's." The bush clover of Miyagino, famous for it, has not yet bloomed, but tonight's moon is so like an autumn moon that the poet wonders whether the deer there are calling, mistaking the season for autumn. Drawing out the autumn images of bush clover and deer, the poem presents the clear light of the summer moon as easily mistaken for autumn's. Poems on the nearness of autumn begin here.
The author, "Fujiwara no Atsunaka," is a figure whose life is not well known.
This poem and the next two, through 220, are poems sensing the signs of autumn at summer's end.

First line, "kohagihara": a field thick with bush clover, "ko" being a prefix.
Second line, "mada hana sakanu": "where the flowers have not yet bloomed," showing it is still summer.
Third line, "Miyagino no": Miyagino is a poetic place in Michinoku, famous for bush clover. "Miyagigahara" in 194 of this book appeared as a torch-hunting ground; here it is sung as the home of bush clover and deer.
Fourth line, "shika ya koyoi no": deer were said to call for their mates in autumn and, with bush clover, are images of autumn. The interrogative "ya" links with "ran" in the last line.
Fifth line, "tsuki ni nakuran": "ran," the attributive of present conjecture, closes with "ya," guessing that the deer are lured to call by an autumn-like moon.
Author: Fujiwara no Atsunaka
Source: Senzai Wakashu
Prev Poem: Yūdachi no mada hareyaranu kumoma yori onaji sora to mo mienu tsuki kana
Next Poem: Natsugoromo susono no hara o wakeyukeba oritagaetaru hagi ga hanazuri