Aki mo haya sueno no hara ni naku shika no koe kiku toki zo tabi wa kanashiki

秋もはや末野の原に鳴く鹿の
声聞く時ぞ旅は悲しき

Roma-ji: Aki mo haya sueno no hara ni naku shika no koe kiku toki zo tabi wa kanashiki
English Translation: Autumn now already
at its end, on Sueno's plain
a deer is crying;
it is when I hear its voice
that the journey turns to grief.
Meaning: Autumn is already at its end, and it is when I hear the deer crying on the plain of Sueno that the journey becomes truly sad.
Commentary: Miscellaneous Poems 575

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "A deer on a journey"
With autumn nearly over, the cry of the deer on the plain of Sueno makes the sorrow of travel sink deep. The second half of the Kokinshū poem about hearing the deer cry in the deep mountains, "then autumn is sad," is turned to travel.
The Ruijū text places it in its travel section. The text transmitted by Teika reads line 2 as sue hara ni.

Line 1 means "autumn already."
Line 2 means "on the plain of Sueno," sue meaning both the end of autumn and the place name.
Line 3 means "of the crying deer," taking up "a deer is crying" in the preceding poem.
Line 4 means "it is when I hear its voice," zo concluded by kanashiki; the phrase comes from the Kokinshū poem.
Line 5 means "travel is sad," changing the source poem's "autumn" to "travel."
Author: Minamoto no Sanetomo
Source: Kinkaishu
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