Konoha chiru aki no yamabe wa ukarikeri taede ya shika no hitori nakuramu

木の葉散る秋の山辺は憂かりけり
堪へでや鹿のひとり鳴くらむ

Roma-ji: Konoha chiru aki no yamabe wa ukarikeri taede ya shika no hitori nakuramu
English Translation: Where the leaves fall down,
on the hillsides in the autumn
all is misery—
is it that it cannot bear it,
the stag that cries out alone?
Meaning: The autumn hillsides where the leaves are falling are so wretched—is that why the stag cries alone, unable to bear it?
Commentary: Autumn Poems 310

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Poems of late autumn"
The autumn hillsides where the leaves are falling are full of misery, and the poet wonders whether the stag cries alone because it cannot bear it. Overlaying the falling leaves with the stag's cry, he portrays the desolation of the mountains as autumn draws to a close.
In the source text consulted, a character at the start of line 3 is missing and has been supplied from the Teika text's ukarikeri.

Line 1 means "where the leaves fall," taking up the fallen leaves spread over the ground in the preceding poem, 309.
Line 2 means "the autumn hillsides."
Line 3: keri expresses realization, "how wretched," and the poem pauses here.
Line 4: de is a negative conjunction, "unable to bear it," and ya is an interrogative binding particle.
Line 5 concludes ya with the attributive of the present conjectural ramu. Like "the stag that cries out alone" in 239, it sings of a stag crying alone; the stag that longed for his mate in the deer sequence cries alone at autumn's end, unable to bear its misery.
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
Prev Poem: Momijiba wa michi mo naki made chirishikinu waga yado o tou hito shi nakereba
Next Poem: Hatsuseyama kyō o kagiri to nagametsutsu iriai no kane ni aki zo kurenuru