Hyakunin Isshu: Meet the Poets
Master of the Empress Dowager's Household Toshinari

Meaning

There is no escape from this world. Even deep in the mountains, the deer cry out.

Commentary

The speaker retreats into the mountains seeking solitude and peace, only to find that the deer's cry — itself one of the most mournful sounds in classical poetry — is waiting there too. Sadness follows you everywhere. "Michi koso nakere" (there is no road, no escape) is the poem's flat, honest conclusion.

Fujiwara no Toshinari (Shunzei) was one of the supreme poetic masters of the Heian-Kamakura transition. He compiled the Senzai Wakashū and developed the aesthetic ideal of yūgen (mysterious, profound beauty). He lived to ninety, composing poetry throughout his long life, and was deeply revered by the next generation of poets.

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