萩が花うつろひて行けば高砂の
尾上の鹿の鳴かぬ日ぞなき
尾上の鹿の鳴かぬ日ぞなき
- Roma-ji
-
Hagi ga hana utsuroite yukeba takasago no onoe no shika no nakanu hi zo naki
- English Translation
-
The bush clover blooms
are fading as the days go by,
and at Takasago
on the peaks, there's not a day
the stags do not cry out.
- Meaning
- As the bush clover flowers fade, there is not a day the stags on the peaks of Takasago do not cry.
- Commentary
-
Autumn Poems 242
Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems on deer"
As the bush clover blossoms fade, there is not a day when the stag on the peaks of Takasago does not cry. The poet portrays the stag lamenting day after day as the clover, regarded as the stag's mate, wanes.
The Ruijū and Teika texts give line 2 as utsuroiyukeba, without te. Because a variant appears alongside line 2 in the source text consulted, it has been taken as utsuroite yukeba in light of the note.
Line 1, "the bush clover flowers": bush clover is likened to the stag's mate and is often paired with deer in poetry.
Line 2, "as they fade," is hypermetric.
Line 3 names Takasago, a poetic site in Harima, also meaning "high hills."
Line 4 means "of the stag on the peaks."
Line 5 concludes the binding particle zo with the attributive naki, stressing that no day passes without his cry. Poem 142 of Book Two ends with the same line, there of the hototogisu and here of the stag, so the singing voices of summer and autumn answer each other.
- Author
- Minamoto no Sanetomo
- Source
- Kinkaishu
- Prev Poem
-
Saoshika no ono ga sumu no no ominaeshi hana ni akazu to ne o ya nakuramu
- Next Poem
-
Asa na asa na tsuyu ni orefusu akihagi no hana fumishidaki shika zo nakunaru