Yūgure wa Ono no hagiwara fuku kaze ni sabishiku mo aru ka shika no nakunaru - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

夕暮れは小野の萩原吹く風に
寂しくもあるか鹿の鳴くなる

Roma-ji: Yūgure wa Ono no hagiwara fuku kaze ni sabishiku mo aru ka shika no nakunaru
English Translation: When evening falls,
on the wind that blows across
Ono's clover fields,
how lonely it is indeed,
I hear a deer crying
Meaning: At dusk, on the wind blowing over the bush clover fields of Ono, comes a deer's cry, and how lonely it is.
Commentary: Book Five Autumn Poems II 306

Headnote: "Composed for the palace poetry contest of the second year of Jōryaku"
Composed for the poetry contest held at Emperor Shirakawa's palace in the second year of Jōryaku (1078). At dusk, on the wind that crosses the bush clover fields of Ono, comes the cry of a deer, and how lonely it is. Bush clover was regarded as the deer's mate, and pairing the clover field with the deer, the poet conveys the loneliness of an autumn dusk through the wind and the deer's voice.
The author, "Fujiwara no Masaie Ason," was the son of Fujiwara no Ieyoshi. A scholar who served as Professor of Letters and Senior Assistant Minister of Ceremonial, he was versed in both Chinese verse and waka.
It shares the words "sabishiku mo aru" with the preceding poem, 305, and from this poem a run of deer poems continues through 325.
The first line of the text reads "yūgure wa," which does not match "yūsareba" in the reading line. Here the text is followed.

First line, "yūgure wa": setting the time. The bond between the deer's voice and dusk recurs in this book, as in 317 and 321.
Second line, "Ono no hagiwara": "Ono" may be read as an elegant word for a moor or as a place name. "Hagiwara" is a field covered with bush clover, the flower paired with the deer.
Third line, "fuku kaze ni": "on the wind that blows across the field," naming what carries the deer's voice.
Fourth line, "sabishiku mo aru ka": "ka" is exclamatory, "how lonely it is." The poem pauses here, taking up the phrasing "sabishiku mo aru" of the preceding poem's fourth line, 305.
Fifth line, "shika no nakunaru": "naru" is the attributive of "nari," an auxiliary of inference from sound, "I hear a deer crying."
Author: Fujiwara no Masaie
Source: Senzai Wakashu
Prev Poem: Tsuyu samumi uragare moteku aki no no ni sabishiku mo aru kaze no oto kana
Next Poem: Mimuroyama orosu arashi no sabishiki ni tsuma yobu shika no koe tagū nari