A semi-legendary poet placed in the late Nara or early Heian period and counted among the Thirty-Six Immortals, though nothing certain is known of his life. His name appears only in the preface to the Kokinshū, and the collection attributed to him consists largely of anonymous poems from earlier anthologies. The Hyakunin Isshu poem on the stag crying among autumn leaves is likewise anonymous in the Kokinshū; Fujiwara no Teika assigned it to Sarumaru.
奥山に 紅葉踏み分け 鳴く鹿の
声聞く時ぞ 秋は悲しき
Okuyama ni momiji fumiwake naku shika no / koe kiku toki zo aki wa kanashiki
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.