Okuyama no kusa fuminarasu saoshika mo fukaki kokoro no hodo wa shiranamu

奥山の草踏み鳴らすさを鹿も
深き心のほどは知らなむ

Roma-ji: Okuyama no kusa fuminarasu saoshika mo fukaki kokoro no hodo wa shiranamu
English Translation: Even the stag
that tramples down the grasses
in the inmost hills—
the depth of a heart like mine,
I wish that you would know.
Meaning: Even the stag tramples down the grasses deep in the mountains in search of his mate; I wish you would know the depth of the longing in my heart.
Commentary: Love Poems 418

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Among poems on love"
The poet wishes that his beloved would know the depth of a love such as even the stag knows, tramping through the grasses of the deep mountains and crying for its mate. He lays his own longing over the deer's yearning for its mate.
According to the notes in the base text, the Ruijū and Teika texts read "moss" for "grasses" in line 2. Here the base text is followed.

Line 1 means "of the deep mountains."
Line 2 means "trampling the grasses flat," the deer wandering the hills in search of its mate.
Line 3 means "even the stag," sa being a prefix; as with the stag of 409, love is entrusted to a deer.
Line 4 means "of a deep heart," joining the depth of the mountains to the depth of feeling.
Line 5: namu is a final particle of wish directed at another, "I wish you would know."
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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