Page:Nihongi by Aston.djvu/356

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Ingiō.

325

so the Imperial Princess Karu no Iratsume was banished to Iyo.^[1] At this time the Heir Apparent made a song, saying:—

I, the Great Lord,
To an island am banished:
Remaining behind in the ship,
(XIII. 16.) I will certainly come back again.
Let my bed be respected—
(In words indeed
I shall call it my bed)
Let my spouse be respected.^[2]

Again he made a song, saying:—

The maiden of Karu
(The Heaven-soaring),
If she wept violently,
Men would know of it—
Like the doves of Mount Hasa,
She weeps with a suppressed weeping.^[3]

A.D. 453. 42nd year, Spring, 1st month, 14th day. The Emperor died. His years were many.^[4]

↑ The "Kojiki" makes the Prince to be banished and Motowori thinks with some reason that this must be the true version of the story. For one thing (he says), women have always been more lightly punished in Japan than men for the same offence, and the particular character of the fault in this case makes such a discrimination all the more reasonable. Moreover, it is hardly possible to construe the poem which follows otherwise than as composed by Prince Karu when about to be banished. An ancient note to the "Nihongi" (see below) speaks of the Prince as having died by his own hand in Iyo.
↑ The word for bed is tatami, now applied to the thick mats used to cover the floor of a Japanese house. At this time the tatami only covered the sleeping-place. There was a superstition forbidding people to meddle with the bed of an absent person, as to do so would bring down calamity on him. The word translated "respect" is yume, taboo, religious abstinence. The third line of this poem is literally "a ship-remainder," by which is understood "one who remains behind in a ship after the other passengers have landed." There are, however, other explanations. See Ch. K., p. 300.
↑ The metre of this poem is irregular. "Heaven soaring" is a conventional epithet applied to Karu, which is the name of a place, because Kari means "a wild goose"—hardly a sufficient reason to our Western minds.
↑ Seventy-eight, says the "Kojiki." Another authority says eighty. But his mother, the Empress Iha no hime, died A.D. 347, and she had ceased to cohabit with her husband A.D. 342 (see above, p. 285), so that he would be at least 110 at the time of his death.

[1] The "Kojiki" makes the Prince to be banished and Motowori thinks with some reason that this must be the true version of the story. For one thing (he says), women have always been more lightly punished in Japan than men for the same offence, and the particular character of the fault in this case makes such a discrimination all the more reasonable. Moreover, it is hardly possible to construe the poem which follows otherwise than as composed by Prince Karu when about to be banished. An ancient note to the "Nihongi" (see below) speaks of the Prince as having died by his own hand in Iyo.

[2] The word for bed is tatami, now applied to the thick mats used to cover the floor of a Japanese house. At this time the tatami only covered the sleeping-place. There was a superstition forbidding people to meddle with the bed of an absent person, as to do so would bring down calamity on him. The word translated "respect" is yume, taboo, religious abstinence. The third line of this poem is literally "a ship-remainder," by which is understood "one who remains behind in a ship after the other passengers have landed." There are, however, other explanations. See Ch. K., p. 300.

[3] The metre of this poem is irregular. "Heaven soaring" is a conventional epithet applied to Karu, which is the name of a place, because Kari means "a wild goose"—hardly a sufficient reason to our Western minds.

[4] Seventy-eight, says the "Kojiki." Another authority says eighty. But his mother, the Empress Iha no hime, died A.D. 347, and she had ceased to cohabit with her husband A.D. 342 (see above, p. 285), so that he would be at least 110 at the time of his death.

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