[214]
¶ SECT. LXXXVI.—EMPEROR KEI-KŌ (PART XI.—YAMATO-TAKE DWELLS IN THE PALACE OF SAKAWORI.)
When, forthwith crossing over from that land out into Kahi, [^1617] he dwelt in the palace of Sakawori, [^1618] he sang, saying:
“How many nights have I slept since passing Nihibari and Tsukuha?” [^1619]
[ p. 266 ]
Then the old man, who was the lighter of the august fire, [^1620] completed the august Song, and sang, saying:
“Oh! having put the days in a row, there are of nights nine nights, and of days ten days!” [1]
Therefore [Yamato-take] praised the old man, and forthwith bestowed [on him] the Rulership of the Eastern Land[s]. [2]
[ p. 267 ]
¶ SECT. LXXXVII.—EMPEROR KEI-KŌ (PART XII.—YAMATO-TAKE WOOES PRINCESS MIYAZU).
Having crossed over from that land into the land of Shinanu [3] and subdued the Deity of the Shinanu pass, [4] he came back to the land of Wohari, and went to dwell in the house of Princess Miyazu, to whom he had before plighted his troth. Hereupon, when presenting to him the great august food, Princess Miyazu lifted up a great liquor-cup and presented it to him. Tunc Heræ Miyazu veli oræ adhæserunt menstrua. Quare [Augustus Yamato-take] ilia menstrua vidit, et auguste cecinit, dicens:
“Ego volui reclinare [caput] in fragili, molli brachiolo [tuo, quod est simile] vallo impingenti acutæ falci in Monte Kagu in cœlo formato quasi cucurbita;—ego desideravi dormire [tecum]. Sed in orâ veli quod induis luna surrexit.” [5]
Tunc Heræ Miyazu augusto cantui respondit, dicens: [216]
“Altè resplendentis solis auguste puer! Placidè administrationem faciens mi magne domine! Renovatis annis venientibus et effluentibus, renovatæ lunæ eunt veniendo patienter expecto, luna suàpte surgit in orâ veli quod ego induo!” [6]
Quare tune [ille] coivit [cum illâ], after which, placing in Princess Miyazu’s house his august sword “the Grass-Quelling Sabre,” he went forth [7] to take the Deity of [Mount] Ibuki. [8]
[ p. 268 ]
[ p. 269 ]
¶ SECT. LXXXVIII.—EMPEROR KEI-KŌ (PART XIII.—YAMATO-TAKE MEETS THE DEITY OF MOUNT IBUKI).
Hereupon he said: “As for the Deity of this mountain, I will simply take him empty-handed.” [9]—and was ascending the mountain, when there met him on the mountain-side a white boar whose size was like unto that of a bull. [10] Then he lifted up words, [11] and said: “This creature that is transformed into a white boar must be a messenger from the Deity. [12] Though I slay it not now, I will slay it when I return,”—and [so saying.] ascended. Thereupon the Deity caused heavy ice-rain [13] to fall, striking and perplexing His Augustness Yamato-take. (This creature transformed into a white boar was not a messenger from the Deity, [14] but the very Deity in person. Owing to the lifting up of words, he appeared and misled [^1634]]) So when, on descending back, he reached the fresh spring of Tama-kuro-be [15] and rested there, his august heart awoke somewhat. [16] So that fresh spring is called by the name of the fresh spring of Wi-same.
[ p. 270 ]
The title was omitted from the printed version I was working from. I have interpolated what I believe to be a plausible title—JBH
¶ SECT. LXXXIX. EMPEROR KEI-KŌ (PART XIV.—THE DEATH OF YAMATO-TAKE).
When he departed thence and reached the moor of [218] Tagi [17] he said: “Whereas my heart always felt like flying through the sky, my legs are now unable to walk. They have become rudder-shaped.” [^1638] So that place was called by the name of Tagi. Owing to his being very weary with progressing a little further beyond that place, he leant upon an august staff to walk a little. So that place is called by the name of the Tsuwetsuki pass. [18] On arriving at the single pine-tree on Cape Wotsu, [19] an august sword, which he had forgotten at that place before when augustly eating, [20] was still [there] not lost. Then he augustly sang, saying:
[ p. 271 ]
“O mine elder brother, the single pine-tree that art on Cape Wotsu which directly faces Mohari! If thou, single pine-tree! wert a person, I would gird [my] sword [upon thee], I would clothe thee with [my] garments,—O mine elder brother, the single pine-tree!” [21]
When he departed thence and reached the village of Mihe, [22] he again said: “My legs are like three-fold crooks, [23] and very weary.” So that place was called by [219] the name of Mihe. When he departed thence and reached the moor of Nobe, [24] he, regretting [25] [his native] land, [26] sang, saying:
“As for Yamato, the most secluded of lands—Yamato, retired behind Mount Awogaki encompassing it with its folds is delightful!” [27]
Again he sang, saying:
“Let those whose life may be complete stick [in their hair] as a head-dress the leaves of the bear-oak from Mount Heguri,—those children!”
This song is a Land-Regretting Song. [28] Again he sang, saying:
“How sweet! ah! from the direction of home clouds are rising and coming!”
This is an Incomplete Song. [29] At this time, his august sickness was very urgent. Then, he sang augustly, saying:
“The sabre-sword which I placed at the maiden’s bed-side, alas! that sword!” [30]
As soon as he had finished singing, he died, Then a courier was despatched [to the Heavenly Sovereign.]
[ p. 272 ]
[ p. 273 ]
[ p. 274 ]
¶ SECT. XC.—EMPEROR KEI-KŌ (PART XV.—YAMATO-TAKE TURNS INTO A WHITE BIRD)
Thereupon [his] Empresses [31] and likewise [his] august [221] children, who dwelt in Yamato, all went down [32] and built an august mausoleum, and, forthwith crawling hither and thither in the rice-fields encompassing [the mausoleum]. sobbed out a Song, saying:
“The Dioscorea quinqueloba crawling hither and thither among the rice-stubble, among the rice-stubble in the rice-fields encompassing [the mausoleum] . . .” [33]
Thereupon [the dead prince], turning into a white dotterel [34] eight fathoms [long], and soaring up to Heaven, flew off towards the shore. Then the Empress and likewise the august children, though they tore their feet treading on the stubble of the bamboo-grass, forgot the pain, and pursued him with lamentations. At that time they sang, saying:
“Our loins are impeded in the plain [over-grown with] short bamboo-grass. We are not going through the sky, but oh! we are on foot.” [35]
[222] Again when they entered the salt sea, [36] and suffered as they went, they sang, saying.
“As we go through the sea, our loins are impeded,—tottering in the sea like herbs growing in a great river-bed.” [37]
[ p. 275 ]
Again when [the bird] flew and perched on the sea-side, they sang, saying:
“The dotterel of the beach goes not on the beach, but follows the seaside.” [38]
These four Songs were all sung at [Yamato-take’s] august interment. So to the present day these Songs are sung at the great interment of a Heavenly Sovereign. So [the bird] flew off from that country, [39] and stopped at Shiki in the land of Kafuchi. [40] So they made an august mausoleum there, and laid [Yamato-take] to rest. [41] Forthwith that august mausoleum was called by the [223] name of the “August-Mausoleum of the White-Bird.” [42] Nevertheless the bird soared up thence to heaven again, and flew away.
[ p. 276 ]
¶ Footnotes
It will he remarked that the first four lines form a “Punning Preface ”to the fifth. Such Punning Prefaces have not necessarily any logical connection with what follows, as has been explained by the present writer in a paper “On the Use of Pillow Words and Plays upon Words in Japanese Poetry,” to be found in Vol. V, Pt. I, pp. 79 et seq. of these “Transactions.” In this particular case, however, there is sufficient continuity of sense to warrant the continuous translation above given. The word “post,” though such a use of it is very curious, must be understood to denote not a dead, but a living trunk, or rather the stem of some delicate plant or grass which falls beneath the sickle of the mower on Mount Kagu in Heaven, or, as it may better be understood, on the Heavenly Mount Kagu [in Yamato]. “Gourd-shaped ”is the translation of hisa-kata no or hisa-gata no, the Pillow-Word for “heaven.” Its meaning is disputed, but Mabuchi in his “Dictionary of Pillow-Words” and Motowori agree in giving to it the sense here adopted (see the above-mentioned paper “On the Use of Pillow-Words, etc.,” p. 81).
265:1 p. 266 This name is identified by the native etymology with an homonymous Substantive signifying “a place between mountains.” ↩︎
265:2 The etymology of this name is uncertain. But the most likely opinion is that it signifies “a zigzag road down a pass.” ↩︎
265:3 I.e., since leaving the province of Hitachi, of which Tsukuha (in modern parlance Tsukuba, with the last syllable nigori’ed) and Nihibari (modern Nihiharu) are two districts. In the later poetry Nibari no is often used as a Pillow-Word for the name of Mount Tsukuba. The etymology of both names is uncertain, but “newly tilled ”seems to be the most probable etymology of the first of the two. ↩︎
266:4 Not necessarily a fire kindled for the sake of obtaining warmth, but fire in general, including, as Motowori suggests, torches and fires lit to drive away mosquitoes. There are frequent mentions in the classical literature of this latter sort of fire, which may indeed still be met with in some districts where mosquito-nets are not yet in common use. ↩︎
266:5 The meaning is: “On counting up, I find that we have been ten days and nine nights.”—Previous to Motowori the expression ka-ga nabette, “having put in a row (i.e. counted) the days” was curiously misunderstood, and subjected to various far-fetched interpretations. There can however be no doubt but that Motowori is right.—The reason why the old man is said to have “completed ”the Prince’s song is that the former taken alone is of incomplete rhythm. ↩︎
266:6 Or, as Motowori would prefer to consider it, “the Rulership of an Eastern Land,” viz., one out of the twelve Eastern provinces. ↩︎
267:1 p. 267 See Sect. XXXIII, Note 26. ↩︎
267:2 Shinanu no saka, a pass between the provinces of Shinano and Mino which is no longer used. ↩︎
267:3 p. 268 Even taken apart from its immediate context, the import of this Song is plain, notwithstanding Moribe’s efforts to explain away its indelicacy. The details of the first part, however, require some comment in order to make them comprehensible to the European reader, the words in question being these which might in English be rendered “thy fragile, slender, delicate arm [which resembles] a post striking against the sharp sickle on Mount Kagu of the gourd-shaped heaven.” In Japanese they run thus:
Hisa-kata no
Ame no Kagu-yamo
To-kama ni
Sa-wataru kuhi:—
Hiha-boso
Ta-waya-gahina wo etc. ↩︎267:4 The total sense of this Song is quite plain.—In the first lines of it the Prince is addressed as if he were the reigning sovereign. The words placidè administrationem faciens represent the Japanese yasumishishi, the Pillow-Word for wa ga oho-kimi, “my great lord.” Elsewhere the English rendering “who tranquilly carries on the government” has been adopted. The word aratama no, rendered by the Adjective renovatis, is the Pillow-Word for “sun,” “moon” and “year,” and is of not quite certain import. The interpretation here adopted has, however, for it the weight of probability and of native authority, Mabuchi in his “Dictionary of Pillow-Words ”deriving it from the Verb aratamaru, “to be renewed.” ↩︎
267:5 p. 269 The characters in the text might also be rendered “he made a progress,” as they are those only properly applied to the movements of a reigning sovereign. Here and elsewhere, they are used in speaking of Yamato-take. (Conf. Sect. LXXX, Note 5.) ↩︎
267:6 On the frontier of Afumi (Omi) and Mince Ibuki seems to signify “blowing,” in allusion, it is said, to the pestilential breath or influence of the god by whom the place was tenanted. The word rendered “Mount ”is supplied by the editor of 1687. ↩︎
269:1 p. 269 I.e., without weapons, and specially without the magic sword which he had left behind in Princess Miyazu’s house. ↩︎
269:2 Or “ox,” or “cow,” the original word not distinguishing between the sexes. ↩︎
269:3 p. 270 The Japanese expression kota-age shite, here rendered “lifted up. words,” very frequently has the signification of “lifting up a prayer” to some superhuman being. In this passage, however, it conveys no more than its proper etymological meaning. ↩︎
269:4 Viz., the god of Mount Ibuki. ↩︎
269:5 Perhaps “hail” may be intended by this expression, and so Motowori decides. But this interpretation of the term seems to agree well with the Song in Sect. CXLII. ↩︎
269:6 The commentators disagree as to whether this note should or should not be considered to form part of the original text. Motowori so considers it. He however, in the opinion of the translator, is not happy in his alteration of the kana reading given by the editor of 1687, which latter has accordingly been followed in the English version. ↩︎
269:7 The literal meaning of this name is “jewel-store-tribe;” but complete uncertainty attaches both to the etymology of the word and to the position of the place. The first printed edition has Tama-kuhi-be. ↩︎
269:8 He had been misled and dazed, but now came to himself again. Thence, according to the etymology of our author, the name of Wi-same, which signifies “dwelling (resting) and awaking,” given to the spring. ↩︎
270:1 p. 272 Tagi-nu. We might, following the Chinese characters, translate thus; “and arrived on the Moor of Tagi.” But the character
has in this context scarcely any meaning. The real etymology of Tagi (in classical and modern parlance taki without the nigori) is “rapid ”or “waterfall,” the cascade formed by the river Vo-ro in Mino being alluded to. The derivation in the next sentence of the text from tagishi supposed to mean “a rudder ”is a mere fancy. ↩︎270:2 The word here fended “rudder” is tagishi, which is written phonetically and does not occur elsewhere, except in a few Proper Names of doubtful import. There is however some probability in favour of the meaning assigned to it by the native commentators. ↩︎
270:3 Tzuwe-tsuki-zaka, i.e., “the pass of leaning on a staff.” It is in the province of Ise between Yokaichi and Ishi-yakushi. ↩︎
270:4 Wotsu-no-saki, in the province of Ise. The name probably signifies “° harbour of the mountain declivity.” ↩︎
270:5 The former portion of the text tells us nothing either of the meal or of the sword here mentioned. ↩︎
271:6 This quaintly simple and apparently very ancient poem needs no elucidation. ↩︎
271:7 In Ise. Mihe signifies “three fold.” ↩︎
271:8 This is the literal rendering of the text. Motowori thinks, however, that we should understand that there were various swellings on his legs, such as would be produced if the limb were tightly tied round with cord in three places. ↩︎
271:9 Nobo-un in the province of Ise. The name seems to signify “the moor of mounting.” ↩︎
271:10 The Chinese character here used signifies simply “thinking of;” but in such a context its common Japanese interpretation is “loving ”or “regretting,” and so Motowori means us to understand it when he reads shinukashite. ↩︎
271:11 Viz., Yamato. ↩︎
271:12 This Song and the two following form but one in the pages of the “Chronicles,” where they appear with several verbal differences, and are attributed, not to the Prince, but to his father the Emperor. Moribe decides that in the latter particular the text of these “Records” gives the preferable account, but that the “Chronicles” are right in making the three Songs one continuous poem. The expression “this Song is a Land-Regretting Song” strongly supports this view; for, though we might also render in the Plural “these Songs are, etc.,” such a translation would be less natural, as in similar cases the numeral is used, thus p. 273 “these two Songs are, etc.” The expression “this is an Incomplete Song ”points as decidedly to some mutilation of the original document, from which the compiler of the “Records” copied this passage. Taking then the three Songs as one, the entire drift is that of a paean on Yamato, the poet’s native land, which he could not hope ever to see again:—Commencing by praising its still seclusion as it lies there behind its barrier of protecting mountains, he goes on to mention the rural pleasures enjoyed by those who, wandering over the hill-sides, deck their hair with garlands of leaves and flowers. For himself indeed these delights are no more; “but,” says he, “do you, ye children full of health and happiness, pursue your innocent enjoyment!” In conclusion he. lovingly apostrophises the clouds which, rising up from the south-west, are, as it were, messengers from home. The word mahoroha, rendered “secluded,” is a great crux to the commentators, and Motowori’s “Examination of the Synonyms of Japan,” pp. 17-18. and Moribe’s “Idzu no Koto Waki,” Vol. III, p. 31, should be consulted by the student desirous of forming his own opinion on the point. Another apparent difficulty is the word gomoreru, whose position in the sentence Motowori seems to have misunderstood. By following Moribe, and taking it as a compound with the word Awogaki-yama into Awogaki yama-gomoreru the difficulty vanishes, and we are likewise relieved from the necessity of supposing anything so highly improbable as that the Verb komoreru when not compounded, should have commenced with a nigori’ed syllable. “Complete ”signifies “healthy.” Mount Heguri is preceded in the original by tatamikomo (Moribe reads tatamigomo with the nigori) a Pillow-Word whose import is disputed. In any case, being a punning one, it cannot be translated. For the “bear-oak” see Sect. LXXII, Note 19. Moribe labours, but without success, to prove that “come,” the last word of the translation, signifies “go,” and imagines that the prince is expressing his envy of the clouds which are rising and going off in the direction of the home which he will never revisit. ↩︎
271:13 I.e., a Song of loving regret for his native land. ↩︎
271:14 “Incomplete Song” must be understood as the designation of a poem of a certain number of lines, viz, three, and was probably given by comparison with the greater length of poetical compositions in general. ↩︎
271:15 This poem is an exclamation of distress at the thought of the sword which he had left with his mistress Princess Miyazu and which, if he had had it with him, would doubtless have preserved him from the evil influences of the god of Mount Ibuki, which were the beginning of p. 274 his end.—“ Sabre-sword” (tsurugi no tachi) is a curious expression, which Moribe thinks means “double-edged sword.” ↩︎
274:1 I.e., wives. It will be remembered that the historian habitually mentions Yamato-take as if he had been Emperor. ↩︎
274:2 Q.d., to the land of Ise. ↩︎
274:3 The drift of the Song is a comparison of the; helpless wanderings of the mourners in the neighbourhood of the tomb to the convolutions of the Dioscorea quinqueloba (a creeping plant) growing among the rice in the adjacent fields. But there are evidently some lines omitted. If we were to adopt the elegant verses conjecturally supplied by Moribe, the entire translation would run thus: “The Dioscorea quinqueloba crawl hither and thither among the rice-stubble, among the rice-stubble in the rice-fields encompassing [the mausoleum]; but though like it, we crawl hither and thither, and weep and speak to thee, thou answerest not a word.”—Moribe supposes this poem to be the Empress’s composition, and the following three to have proceeded from the children. ↩︎
274:4 As usual when the word chidori (defined as “any kind of dotterel, plover or sandpiper”) is used, it is doubtful what bird is really intended. At the end of this Section we are told that the Mausoleum was called the Mausoleum of the White Bird (
).“ Specifically, however, these characters are used with their Sinico-Japanese pronunciation of haku-cho as the name of the swan. But as swans are nowhere else mentioned in these ”Records “and as moreover their habits are not p. 276 such as to accord with the legend here narrated, it will perhaps be safer to retain ”dotterel “in the translation. ”Heron "also has been suggested. ↩︎274:5 The signification of this Song is: “It is easy enough for thee, thou bird-spirit! to fly through the air. But remember that we are on foot, and that our feet are getting torn by the short stubble of the bamboo-grass (Bambusa shino).” ↩︎
274:6 When the bird flew over the sea, they too waded after it through the waves. ↩︎
274:7 The signification of the Song is: “As we pursue thee through the sea, we sink in the waves up to our middles, and totter like the water-plants against ”which strikes the current of a great river.“—The word uwe-gusa, lit. ”herbs planted,“ is curious; but it simply means ”herbs growing,“ as in the translation (conf. our word ”plant"). The latter part of the poem is in the original highly elliptical. ↩︎