the Imaki valley. The Empress had always esteemed her grandson highly for his obedient conduct. She was therefore beside herself with grief, and her emotion was exceeding great. Sending for the Ministers, she said:—
"After ten thousand years and a thousand autumns[1] he must be interred along with us in our own misasagi."
So she made songs, saying:—
On the Hill of Womure[2]
In Imaki—
If but a cloud
Arose, plain to be seen,
Why should I lament?
This was the first song.
I never thought
That he was young[3]
As the young grass
By the riverside whither one tracks
The deer wounded by an arrow.
This was the second song.
Like the flowing water
Of the River Asuka
Which surges as it flows,
Unceasingly
I long for him!
This was the third song.
The Empress sang these songs from time to time, and lamented bitterly.
- ↑ A Chinese expression for the date of the death of an Emperor.
- ↑ A native commentator remarks that mute is the Corean word for mountain. Womure would therefore mean little-mount. There were Corean settlers in Imaki. The modern Corean word for mountain is moi, which is, no doubt, a contraction of mure. Cf. nè (nai) for nari or nare, river. As shown by Chamberlain in his Loochooan Grammar, "T.A.S.J." XXIII. Supplement, Loochooan resembles modern Corean in dropping r in words where this letter is retained in Japanese. An example quoted by him is Loochooan mui, a wood, for Japanese mori. I suspect that the Loochooan mui, wood, the Japanese mori, wood, and the Corean moi, mountain, are identical roots.
The sense of the poem is that the Empress would try to console herself with the imagination that a cloud over the young Prince's tomb was his representative. - ↑ He was wise beyond his years.
