Kojiki (Chamberlain, 1882)/Section 153

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

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Ō no Yasumaro4692183Kojiki1882Basil Hall Chamberlain

[Sect. CLIII.—Emperor Yū-riyaku (Part IV.—He Wooes Princess Waka-kusaka-be).]

Forthwith making a progress to the residence of Queen Waka-kusaka-be, the Heavenly Sovereign sent the dog as a present with a message, saying: “This thing is a strange thing which I got to day on the road. So it is a thing to woo with,”—and so saying, sent it in as a present. Thereupon Queen Waka-kusaka-be sent to say to the Heavenly Sovereign: “It is very alarming that thou shouldst make a progress with thy back to the sun.^[1] So I will come up straight [to the capital], and respectfully serve thee.”^[2] When therefore he returned up and dwelt in the palace, he went and stood on the ascent^[3] of that mountain, and sang, saying:

“In the hollow between the nearer and the further mountain, this Mount Kusaka-be and Mount Heguri, [is] growing the flourishing broad-leafed bear-oak; at the base grow intertwining bamboos; on the top grow luxuriant bamboos:—we sleep not [now] intertwined like the intertwining bamboos, we sleep not certainly like the luxuriant bamboos: [but] oh! my beloved spouse, with whom [I] shall afterwards sleep intertwined!”^[4]

And he forthwith sent back a messenger with this Song.^[5]

↑ For he had come from Yamato in the East to Kafuchi in the West.
↑ The meaning is: “Thy Majesty must not come to woo me here, as the direction is unlucky. But I will myself come up straightway to the palace to be thine Empress.”
↑ The ascent or way up here mentioned is, says Motowori, the Tadagoye Road, and the mountain is Mount Kusaka. See Sect. CLII, Notes 2 and 3.
↑ In this Song the Emperor consoles himself for the delay in his union with Princess Waka-kusaka-be by reflecting that after all she will soon be his.—The first half of the poem down to the colon and dash is a Preface to the rest. Most of the difficult words occurring in it have been explained in previous notes: for the “broad-leafed bear-oak” see Sect. LXXII, Note 19; for tatami-komo, the Pillow-Word by which Heguri is preceded in the Japanese text, see Sect. LXXXIX, Note 12. Kusaka-be is curious, for whereas it properly signifies Kusaka-Tribe,—this tribe or family being called after the place where they resided,—the place itself came to be renamed after them when the fact of the posterior origin of the family designation had been forgotten. The reason for the mention in the Preface of the oak-tree, which is not referred to in the main text of the poem, is difficult to ascertain. Moribe thinks, however, that it is on account of the luxuriance of its foliage which, as if it were a Preface within the Preface, paves the way for the mention of the thick-growing bamboos. The punning connection between tashimi-dake, “luxuriant bamboos,” and tashi ni ha wi-nezu, “we sleep not certainly,” is necessarily obliterated in the English translation. “Certainly” must be taken in the sense of “undisturbedly.”
↑ I.e., as may be conjectured, a messenger dispatched to him by his mistress. It seems best to suppose the author to represent the Emperor as not having actually gone to her house at all, but as having only communicated with her by messenger.

[1] For he had come from Yamato in the East to Kafuchi in the West.

[2] The meaning is: “Thy Majesty must not come to woo me here, as the direction is unlucky. But I will myself come up straightway to the palace to be thine Empress.”

[3] The ascent or way up here mentioned is, says Motowori, the Tadagoye Road, and the mountain is Mount Kusaka. See Sect. CLII, Notes 2 and 3.

[4] In this Song the Emperor consoles himself for the delay in his union with Princess Waka-kusaka-be by reflecting that after all she will soon be his.—The first half of the poem down to the colon and dash is a Preface to the rest. Most of the difficult words occurring in it have been explained in previous notes: for the “broad-leafed bear-oak” see Sect. LXXII, Note 19; for tatami-komo, the Pillow-Word by which Heguri is preceded in the Japanese text, see Sect. LXXXIX, Note 12. Kusaka-be is curious, for whereas it properly signifies Kusaka-Tribe,—this tribe or family being called after the place where they resided,—the place itself came to be renamed after them when the fact of the posterior origin of the family designation had been forgotten. The reason for the mention in the Preface of the oak-tree, which is not referred to in the main text of the poem, is difficult to ascertain. Moribe thinks, however, that it is on account of the luxuriance of its foliage which, as if it were a Preface within the Preface, paves the way for the mention of the thick-growing bamboos. The punning connection between tashimi-dake, “luxuriant bamboos,” and tashi ni ha wi-nezu, “we sleep not certainly,” is necessarily obliterated in the English translation. “Certainly” must be taken in the sense of “undisturbedly.”

[5] I.e., as may be conjectured, a messenger dispatched to him by his mistress. It seems best to suppose the author to represent the Emperor as not having actually gone to her house at all, but as having only communicated with her by messenger.

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