Once upon a time, there was a man who lived in Tamba Province. Although he was a countryman, he was a man of feeling and refinement. He had two wives, and he had them live in houses next to each other.
His first wife was a woman from Tamba. He had grown dissatisfied with her, so he brought a new wife from the capital. He treated the new wife with great affection, while his first wife felt lonely and neglected.
One autumn, the man was staying in his home, which stood in a mountain village in the north. From the mountain behind the house, he heard the plaintive cry of a deer.
He was at his new wife’s house. He asked her,
“What do you think of that sound?”
“I think it would be sweet if made into a simmered dish, and delicious if roasted.”
The man was deeply disappointed.
“She is a woman from the capital, so I thought she might appreciate things like this.”
He went to his first wife’s house and asked her,
“What do you think of the deer’s cry we have just heard?”
The woman answered with a poem:
I, too, once cried out like a deer
and made you fall in love with me.
But now, I can only hear your voice
as the voice of someone else.
Hearing this, the man felt great affection for her. He remembered what his new wife had said, and his feelings for her faded away. He sent her back to the capital and went on living with his first wife.
It is said that although the man was a countryman, he understood a woman’s heart and was moved to act as he did. His first wife, too, was a woman who understood elegance and poetic feeling, which was why she was able to compose such a poem.
[Translation]
Yuri Aoi / Siro Inuzuka
This text was created by using chatGPT and Gemini to translate a modern Japanese translation into English, and then making some modifications. There may be errors in the English expressions. Please correct any mistakes.
[Commentary]
Yuri Aoi / Siro Inuzuka
The poem is included in Shin Kokin Wakashū.
[Cooperation]
Shinichi Kusano
●Japanese
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