Sarumaru Dayū Explained

was a waka poet in the early Heian period. He is a member of the, but there are no detailed histories or legends about him. There is a possibility that there never was such a person. Some believe him to have been Prince Yamashiro no Ōe.

Poetry example

The following waka is attributed to him, a classic :

Japanese	Rōmaji	English translation
奥山に紅葉踏みわけ鳴く鹿の声きく時ぞ秋はかなしき	Okuyama niMomiji fumiwakeNaku shika noKoe kiku toki zoAki wa kanashiki	Autumn at its saddest—Rustling through the leaves and moving on alone deep into the mountains,I hear a lonely stag belling for his doe.

This poem is the 215th poem of the Kokin Wakashū, and was also incorporated into Fujiwara no Teika's famous Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, as number 5.

Sources

• Book: McMillan, Peter . 2008 . One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each: A Translation of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu . Foreword by Donald Keene . Columbia University Press . 978-0-231-14398-1 .

Further reading

• Papinot, Edmond (1910). Historical and geographical dictionary of Japan. Tokyo: Librarie Sansaisha.