41. Yamato-take Wooes Princess Miyazu

1Having crossed over from that land into the land of Shinanu and subdued the Deity of the Shinanu pass, he came back to the land of Wohari, and went to dwell in the house of Princess Miyazu, to whom he had before plighted his troth. Hereupon, when presenting to him the great august food, princess Miyazu lifted up a great august liquor-cup and presented it to him. Tunc Heræ Miyazu veli oræ adhæserunt menstrua. Quare [Augustus Yamato-take] illa menstrua vidit, et auguste cecinit, dicens:

2“Ego volui reclinare [caput] in fragili, molli brachiolo [tuo, quod est simile] vallo impingenti acutæ falci in Monti Kagu in cœlo formato quasi cucurbita;—ego desideravi dormire [tecum]. Sed in orâ veli quod induis luna surrexit.”

3Tunc Hera Miyazu augusto cantui respondit, dicens:

4“Altè resplendentis solis anguste puer! Placidè administrationem faciens mî magne domine! Renovatis annis venientibus et effluentibus, renovatæ lunæ eunt veniendo et effluendo. Sane, sane, dum te impatienter exspecto, luna suâpte surgit in orâ veli quod ego induo!”

5Quare tunc [ille] coivit [cum illâ], after which, placing in Princess Miyazu’s house his august sword “the Grass-Quelling Sabre,” he went forth to take the Deity of [Mount] Ibuki.

6Hisa-kata no Ame no Kagu-yama To-kama ni Sa-wataru kuhi:— Hiha-boso Ta-waya-gahina wo, etc.

7It will be remarked that the first four lines form a “Punning Preface” to the fifth. Such Punning Prefaces have not necessarily any logical connection with what follows, as has been explained by the present writer in a paper “On the Use of Pillow-Words and Plays upon Words in Japanese Poetry,” to be found in Vol. V, Pt. I, pp. 79 et seq. of these “Transactions.” In this particular case, however, there is sufficient continuity of sense to warrant the continuous translation above given. The word “post,” though such a use of it is very curious, must be understood to denote not a dead, but a living trunk, or rather the stem of some delicate plant or grass which falls beneath the sickle of the mower on Mount Kagu in Heaven, or, as it may better be understood, on the Heavenly Mount Kagu [in Yamato]. “Gourd-shaped” is the translation of hisa-kata no or hisa-gata no, the Pillow-Word for “heaven.” Its meaning is disputed, but Mabuchi in his “Dictionary of Pillow-Words” and Motowori agree in giving to it the sense here adopted (see the above-mentioned paper “On the Use of Pillow-Words, etc.,” p. 81).