Those Gentle Autumn Blues...

There's a particular feeling of melancholy, a kind of romantic sadness, I associate with autumn that I think the Japanese also feel very strongly and express very well in poems like this:

奥山の
もみじ踏み分け
鳴く鹿の
声聞くときぞ
秋は悲しき
(猿丸太夫）

okuyama no
momiji fumiwake
naku shika no
koe kiku toki zo
aki ha kanashiki
(By Sarumaru Dayu)

Deep in the mountains,
wading through leaves,
when I hear the stag's voice calling,
Autumn is so sad.
(Very rough translation by Michael Lambe)

I've long wondered what word could express this feeling in Japanese. When I look up the word "melancholy" all I find are dark words describing gloom and depression. However, the particular autumn melancholy I am trying to express is a kind of pleasant, romantic feeling... At the weekend I met a gentleman who knew exactly what I meant and gave me this word, which is today's word, to describe it:

寂寥　-　せきりょう - loneliness, still, quiet, desolate...

Let's look at those kanji. Both seem to mean the same thing but the first kanji is the one most commonly used to write "sabishii" or lonely.

寂 - SEKI / JAKU - sabishii - lonely
寥 - RYO - sabishii - lonely

The second kanji seems describe less a personal feeling of missing someone than a place or landscape that is empty of people, such as in the word 寥々たる (ryouryoutaru) which can mean barren, or sparse, or rare...

Here's how today's word is used:

寂寥を感じる - sekiryou wo kanjiru - to feel lonely
寂寥感 - sekiryoukan - loneliness
寂寥たる眺め - sekiryoutaru nagame - a lonely scene