寂しさを何にたとへんを鹿鳴く
深山の里の明け方の空
深山の里の明け方の空
- Roma-ji
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Sabishisa o nani ni tatoen oshika naku miyama no sato no akegata no sora
- English Translation
-
This loneliness,
to what shall I compare it?
where the stag cries,
over the deep mountain village,
the sky at break of dawn
- Meaning
- To what can I compare this loneliness? The sky at dawn over a village deep in the mountains, where a stag is crying.
- Commentary
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Book Five Autumn Poems II 323
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed as a poem on the deer"
Composed as a poem on the deer. To what can this loneliness be compared, the poet asks: the sky at dawn over a village deep in the mountains, where a stag is crying. Rather than explaining a loneliness beyond comparison, he simply shows the dawn sky ringing with the deer's voice and lets the reader feel it.
The author, "Koremune no Hirokoto," was an official and poet of the late Heian period. He was also versed in imayō songs, and his personal collection is the Koremune no Hirokoto Shū.
This is the seventh of a run of nine poems, 317 through 325, composed as "poems on the deer."
First line, "sabishisa o": naming what is to be compared, the loneliness of a mountain village, as in 303 and 311 of this book.
Second line, "nani ni tatoen": "n" is the conjectural "mu," "to what shall I compare it?", a question to himself. The poem pauses here.
Third line, "oshika naku": "where the stag cries," modifying "miyama no sato" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "miyama no sato no": "miyama" is the deep mountains, a remote village like the "yamazato" of 319 of this book.
Fifth line, "akegata no sora": the poem ends on a noun, giving the answer to its question as the scene itself. It answers "akatsukigata" in 319, singing of the same hour when the deer is heard.
- Author
- Koremune no Hirokoto
- Source
- Senzai Wakashu
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