Fumishidaki asa yuku shika ya sugitsuran shidoro ni miyuru noji no karukaya - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

踏みしだき朝行く鹿や過ぎつらむ
しどろに見ゆる野路の刈萱

Roma-ji: Fumishidaki asa yuku shika ya sugitsuran shidoro ni miyuru noji no karukaya
English Translation: Trampling as it went,
has a deer passed by this way
on its morning round?
All in disarray they look,
the kaya grasses by the path
Meaning: Has a deer gone by in the morning, trampling as it went? The kaya grass along the field path lies all in disarray.
Commentary: Book Four Autumn Poems I 244

Headnote: "Composed for a poetry contest held at the quarters of the Holy Man Sensai of Ungoji"
Composed for a poetry contest held at the quarters of the Holy Man Sensai of Ungoji, a temple in the Eastern Hills of the capital. Seeing the kaya grass along the field path lying in disarray one morning, the poet surmises that a deer must have trampled through it on its way across the morning fields. From the scene of tangled grass before him, he pictures the path of a deer he cannot see.
The author, "Fujiwara no Michitsune," was the son of Fujiwara no Akitsuna. He served as Governor of Izumi and rose to Junior Fifth Rank, Upper Grade. Active in the poetry circle of Fujiwara no Tadamichi's house, he is said to have introduced Shunzei to Mototoshi.
Where 242 and 243 of this book showed kaya grass tossed by the wind, this poem shows it trampled by a deer, finding another cause for its disorder.

First line, "fumishidaki": "trampling it down."
Second line, "asa yuku shika ya": the interrogative "ya" links with "ramu" in the third line, picturing a deer crossing the fields in the morning.
Third line, "sugitsuran": "tsu" is perfective and "ramu" the attributive of present conjecture: "has it passed by?" The poem pauses here.
Fourth line, "shidoro ni miyuru": "shidoro ni" describes something tangled and out of order, the scene before the eyes on which the guess is based.
Fifth line, "noji no karukaya": ends on a noun, the kaya grass along a path through the fields. It echoes "nobe no karukaya," the last line of 243 and 246 of this book.
Author: Fujiwara no Michitsune
Source: Senzai Wakashu
Prev Poem: Oshinabete kusaba no ue o fuku kaze ni mazu shitaoruru nobe no karukaya
Next Poem: Aki kinu to kaze mo tsugeteshi yamazato ni nao honomekasu hanasusuki kana