Deep in the remote mountains, when I hear a deer crying as it treads through the fallen maple leaves, that is when the sadness of autumn cuts deepest.
Sarumaru Dayū is counted among the Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals, yet he is a legendary figure whose existence can barely be confirmed. In the Kokin Wakashū this poem is recorded as "author unknown," and only later was it attributed to Sarumaru Dayū. Composed in the early Heian period, this poem, which paints the sorrow of autumn through "crimson leaves and the cry of a deer," is the origin point that shaped the Japanese sensibility of "autumn equals melancholy" for a thousand years. The stag that cries in autumn cries for its mate; since the days of the Man'yōshū, that voice had been a symbol of loneliness and longing.
Deep in the mountains, far from any village, walking through the silence of fallen leaves piled thick, a deer's cry suddenly rings out. In the desperate urgency of that voice calling for its mate, the listener recognizes his own loneliness. "Autumn is sad": the power of this poem lies in its directness, stating the feeling flat out without reasoning it away. Putting sadness into words without hiding it was already a song a thousand years ago.
"Autumn is sad" was a name given to a feeling that had none; that is the discovery of this adaptation. The loneliness of an autumn dusk that tightened a child's chest before the child knew what to call it, finally caught up with as an adult, in the scent of fragrant olive. The final "let's go home" is a reply, thirty years late, to the child who was called home that evening. It is a song that tells you it is all right to say out loud that you are sad.
奥山に（古今集/猿丸大夫・百人一首5番）Garu JP
真っ赤な夕日が 影を伸ばす
鬼ごっこは 途中でおしまい
どこからか風が 甘くなって
カナカナの響く 帰り道
どうして泣きたく なったんだろう
あの頃は名前も 知らないまま
奥山に 紅葉踏み分け
鳴く鹿の 声がする
千年前の 誰かがつけた
「秋は悲しき」 その言葉は
あのさびしさの 名前だった
仕事帰りの 公園で
金木犀に 足を止める
カナカナの響きは あの日と同じ
胸の奥が きゅっと鳴る
おとなになるほど 季節は足早に
永遠に感じた あの日あの頃
奥山に 紅葉踏み分け
鳴く鹿も 知ってたのかな
過ぎてゆく 季節の速さ
戻れない 秋のまんなかで
恋しいと 鳴いていたのかな
悲しいって 言っていいんだ
千年前から みんな言ってた
秋の夕暮れ 悲しいって
言葉にして 生きてきた
奥山に 紅葉踏み分け 鳴く鹿の
声聞く時ぞ 秋は悲しき
奥山に 紅葉踏み分け
鳴く鹿の 声が聞こえる
ひぐらしの響きも あの日の甘い風も
みんな誰かを 呼んでいる声だ
私も小さく 鳴いてみる
「帰りたいね」って それだけ
声聞く時ぞ……
秋は悲しき
The crimson sunset stretches our shadows long
Our game of tag ends halfway through
From somewhere, the breeze turns sweet
Evening cicadas ring down the road home
Why did I feel like crying then?
Back then, I didn't even know its name
Deep in the mountains, through fallen autumn leaves
I hear the crying of a deer
Someone a thousand years ago
gave it the words "autumn is sorrow"
That was the name of my loneliness
In the park on my way home from work
The sweet olive scent stops me still
The cicadas ring just like that day
Something tightens deep in my chest
The older I grow, the faster seasons pass
Those days that once felt like forever
Deep in the mountains, through fallen autumn leaves
Did the crying deer know it too?
How swiftly the seasons slip away
In the heart of an autumn I can't return to
Was it crying out of longing, too?
It's okay to say you're sad
People have said it for a thousand years
"Autumn twilight makes me sad"
Putting it into words, we've lived on
Deep in the mountains, treading autumn leaves
when I hear the deer cry — autumn is sorrow
Deep in the mountains, through fallen autumn leaves
I can hear the deer crying still
The cicadas' ring, that sweet breeze of that day
They're all voices calling for someone
So I let out a small cry of my own
"I want to go home" — that's all
When I hear that voice...
autumn is sorrow
Okuyama ni (Kokin Wakashu / Hyakunin Isshu No.5) Garu JP