Tsuki o nomi aware to omou sayo fukete miyamagakure ni shika zo nakunaru

月をのみあはれと思ふさ夜更けて
深山隠れに鹿ぞ鳴くなる

Roma-ji: Tsuki o nomi aware to omou sayo fukete miyamagakure ni shika zo nakunaru
English Translation: Thinking only of
the moon, how moving it is,
as the night grows late,
hidden deep within the hills
I can hear a stag cry out.
Meaning: As I sat thinking only how moving the moon was, the night grew late, and from deep in the hills, hidden, a stag began to cry.
Commentary: Autumn Poems 238

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems on deer"
As the night in which the poet gazed only at the moon grows late, he hears a stag crying from deep within the mountains. His heart, turned wholly to the moon, is drawn by the unexpected cry of the stag to another pathos of the autumn night.
The Ruijū and Teika texts differ in line 2. In the source text consulted, characters in lines 2 and 3 are missing and have been supplied from the Teika text's aware to omou and sayo fukete.

Line 1: nomi limits, "only the moon."
Line 2 means "thinking it moving," showing the heart of the poet gazing at the moon.
Line 3: sa is a prefix, "as the night grows late."
Line 4 means "hidden deep in the mountains," so the stag is not seen and only its voice is heard.
Line 5 is the same last line as the two preceding poems, concluding zo with the inferential naru. Whereas the three preceding poems sang of a stag in mist, this one sings of a stag on a moonlit night, shifting the mood of the deer poems from mist to moon.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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