Kojiki (Chamberlain, 1882)/Section 111

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Kojiki (1882)
by Ō no Yasumaro, translated by Basil Hall Chamberlain

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Ō no Yasumaro4692067Kojiki1882Basil Hall Chamberlain

[Sect. CXI.—Emperor Ō-jin (Part VIII.—The Emperor Intoxicated).]

Again there came over [to Japan] the ancestor of the Hada Rulers,^[1] the ancestor of the Aya Suzerains,^[2] and likewise a man who knew how to distill liquor, and whose name was Nim-pan,^[3] while another name for him was Susukori.^[4] So this [man] Susukori distilled some great august liquor, and presented it to the Heavenly Sovereign, who, excited with the great august liquor that had been presented to him, augustly sang, saying:

“I have become intoxicated with the august liquor distilled by Susukori. I have become intoxicated with the soothing liquor, with the smiling liquor.”^[5]

On his walking out singing thus, he hit with his august staff a large stone in the middle of the Ohosaka^[6] road, upon which the stone ran away. So the proverb says: “Hard stones get out of a drunkard’s way.”

↑ Hada no miyatsuko, 秦造, a “gentile name.” Hada is the native Japanese word used as the equivalent of the Chinese name 秦, Ch‘in. Its origin is uncertain.
↑ Aya no atahe 漢直, a “gentile name.” The use of Aya to represent the Chinese name 漢, Han, is as difficult to account for as is that of Hada mentioned in the preceding Note.
↑ 仁番. Another and more Japanese-like reading, Niho, is invented by Motowori; but the older editors read Nim-pan according to the usual Sinico-Japanese sound of the characters. The modern Korean reading would be In-pōn.
↑ Written phonetically 須須許理.
↑ Thus translated, this Song is too clear to need any explanation. The lines, however, which are rendered by “with the soothing liquor, with the smiling liquor,”—in Japanese koto nagu shi we-gushi-ni,—are in reality extremely obscure, and Moribe understands them to signify, “Oh! how difficult it is for me to speak! Oh! how ill at ease I am!” In order to do so he has. however, to change and add to the text; and the translator, though not sure of being in the right path, has preferred to follow Motowori, whose interpretation, without requiring any such extreme measures, yet gives a very plausible sense.
↑ See Sect. LXIV, Note 25.

[1] Hada no miyatsuko, 秦造, a “gentile name.” Hada is the native Japanese word used as the equivalent of the Chinese name 秦, Ch‘in. Its origin is uncertain.

[2] Aya no atahe 漢直, a “gentile name.” The use of Aya to represent the Chinese name 漢, Han, is as difficult to account for as is that of Hada mentioned in the preceding Note.

[3] 仁番. Another and more Japanese-like reading, Niho, is invented by Motowori; but the older editors read Nim-pan according to the usual Sinico-Japanese sound of the characters. The modern Korean reading would be In-pōn.

[4] Written phonetically 須須許理.

[p253-5] Thus translated, this Song is too clear to need any explanation. The lines, however, which are rendered by “with the soothing liquor, with the smiling liquor,”—in Japanese koto nagu shi we-gushi-ni,—are in reality extremely obscure, and Moribe understands them to signify, “Oh! how difficult it is for me to speak! Oh! how ill at ease I am!” In order to do so he has. however, to change and add to the text; and the translator, though not sure of being in the right path, has preferred to follow Motowori, whose interpretation, without requiring any such extreme measures, yet gives a very plausible sense.

[6] See Sect. LXIV, Note 25.

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