Yamazato no akatsukigata no shika no ne wa yowa no aware no kagiri narikeri - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

山里の暁方の鹿の音は
夜半のあはれの限りなりけり

Roma-ji: Yamazato no akatsukigata no shika no ne wa yowa no aware no kagiri narikeri
English Translation: In the mountain village
in the darkness before dawn
the deer's crying voice,
of all the pathos of the night,
it proved to be the height
Meaning: The deer's cry in a mountain village before dawn was the very height of all the night's deep feeling.
Commentary: Book Five Autumn Poems II 319

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed as a poem on the deer"
Composed as a poem on the deer. The deer's voice heard before dawn in a mountain village, the poet says, was the height of all the deep feeling of the night. He declares outright that the pathos of a whole night builds up and reaches its peak in the deer's voice at daybreak.
The author, "Hōin Jien," was the son of Regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi. He served four times as Tendai Abbot and wrote the historical treatise Gukanshō. His personal collection is the Shūgyokushū, and a poem of his is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
This is the third of a run of nine poems, 317 through 325, composed as "poems on the deer."

First line, "yamazato no": setting the place. 323 of this book also hears a deer at dawn in a "village deep in the mountains," the same time and place.
Second line, "akatsukigata no": "akatsukigata" is the dark hour before dawn, answering the last line of 323, "akegata no sora," the sky at dawn.
Third line, "shika no ne wa": presenting the subject, whose nature the lower verse declares.
Fourth line, "yowa no aware no": "yowa" is the middle of the night, and "aware" is the deep, moving feeling of things.
Fifth line, "kagiri narikeri": "kagiri" means the utmost, and "keri" expresses realization, closing on the height of the night's pathos.
Author: Jien
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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