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Audio: NHK Creative Library
Read by LibriVox volunteer Larry Wilson.
Audio courtesy of LibriVox (Public Domain).
猿丸太夫
奥山に
紅葉踏み分け
鳴く鹿の
声聞く時ぞ
秋はかなしき
こゑきくと
きそあきは
かなしき
おく
- Poem 5
- 奥山に
紅葉踏み分け
鳴く鹿の
声聞く時ぞ 秋はかなしき
Author: Sarumaru Dayū (dates unknown)
Source: Kokin Wakashū, Autumn
- English Verse Translation
- Hear the stag's pathetic call Far up the mountain side, While tramping o'er the maple leaves
Wind-scattered far and wide This sad, sad autumn tide.
— William N. Porter, 1909
- Modern Translation
- Deep in the mountains, treading through the scattered autumn leaves, I hear a deer cry. Listening to that voice, I feel the sadness of autumn all the more.
- Commentary
- According to the Kokin Wakashū's headnote, this poem was composed at a poetry contest held at the residence of Prince Koresada, a son of Emperor Kōkō. Autumn is the deer's rutting season, when stags call out in a distinctive high-pitched cry as they search for mates. This mournful cry seems to have been a seasonal sound that, for people of the time, evoked the deepening melancholy of autumn.
- About the Poet
- No record survives of Sarumaru Dayū's birth, death, or life story, and nothing concrete is known of his background or achievements — for this reason he is considered a legendary, semi-mythical poet.
- Sarumaru Dayū's Chart of the Heart
-
A chart and a modern-language reflection of the poet's inner feelings.
The Poet's Feelings (A Personal Interpretation)
Treading through the colored leaves, I realize how far behind
the world has fallen. When the deer's cry echoes from the mountain depths,
the loneliness I'd held inside comes spilling out.
- Poem Illustration
-
This image is based on an illustration from William N. Porter's A Hundred Verses from Old Japan, his 1909 English translation of the Hyakunin Isshu published in England, colorized and reworked using Adobe Firefly (generative AI).