Page:Nihongi by Aston.djvu/412

The Dolichos cords which he has tied—^[1]
These are the endurance of the august life of the master of the house:
The reed-leaves it is thatched with—
(XV. 11.) These are the superabundance of the august wealth of the master of the house:

On all sides^[2] (of it) there are fields of fresh culture:
With the ten-span rice-ears,
Of these fresh fields,
In a shallow pan
We have brewed sake.
With gusto let us drink it,
O my boys!
Whenever we dance
Uplifting the horns of a buck^[3]
Of these secluded hills
(Weary to the foot)
Sweet sake from Yega market-town
Not buying with a price,
To the clear ring of hand-palms
Ye will revel,^[4]
Oh! my immortal ones!^[5]

When he had ended proposing this health, he sang to the accompaniment of music, saying:—

∗ ∗ ∗ ∗^[6]
The willow that grows by the river—

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1. i.e. tied the laths (of sedge) to the uprights of the walls, which were then plastered with a mixture of mud and straw. The firmness with which they were tied represents the endurance of the master's life.
2. In this passage, as in the well-known poem attributed to Susa no wo, I have ventured to render idzumo as equal to idzukumo, on all sides, although without native authority.
3. Animal dances, in which the performer represented a deer, wild boar, butterfly, bird, etc., were common in ancient Japan. The Shishi mai, or lion-dance, danced by two boys, one of whom wears a grotesque mask supposed to represent a lion, and the other supports the body, made of cotton stuff, may still be seen in the streets.
4. The word for "revel" is uchi-age, which means literally to strike up. But the uchi (strike) must also be taken with "hand-palms" in the sense of "clapping."
5. A way of saying, "May you live for ever!" In this passage the author had in mind a speech in Japanese, the original language of which, although mainly expressed by Chinese ideographs, can be conjectured with some degree of certainty.
6. The first line of this poem contains the single word Ina-mushiro, "sleep-