Hareyaranu miyama no kiri no taedae ni honoka ni shika no koe kikoyu nari

晴れやらぬ深山の霧の絶え絶えに
ほのかに鹿の声聞こゆなり

Roma-ji: Hareyaranu miyama no kiri no taedae ni honoka ni shika no koe kikoyu nari
English Translation: Through the mountain mist
that will never fully clear,
breaking now and then,
faintly comes to me the sound
of a deer that calls afar.
Meaning: Through the gaps in the mist that never quite lifts from the deep mountains, the voice of a deer comes to me faintly, now and then.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 300

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "When people composed ten autumn poems each"
This is the fifth poem in the set of ten. Through gaps here and there in the mist that never fully lifts from the deep mountains, the call of a deer comes faintly and brokenly. The presence of a deer that cannot be seen is caught through its voice reaching the poet through the mist.
The set has moved through flowers, insects and reed grass, and here the deer appears. The device of catching through its voice a deer hidden by mist also links with 438, where a deer calls faintly, lost in the mist.

First line, “hareyaranu”: yaru means to do completely, and with the negative nu, never fully clearing.
Second line, “miyama no kiri no”: the mist that hangs in the deep mountains.
Third line, “taedae ni”: brokenly, at once the gaps in the mist and the breaks in the voice that comes through them.
Fourth line, “honoka ni shika no”: faintly, the deer's, showing how distant the voice is beyond the mist.
Fifth line, “koe kikoyu nari”: nari infers from sound, it seems the deer's voice can be heard.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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