42. The Leaf in the Cup

1Again when the Heavenly Sovereign made a copious feast under a hundred-branching tsuki-tree at Hatsuse, a female attendant from Mihe in the land of Ise lifted up the great august cup, and presented it to him. Then from the hundred-branching tsuki-tree there fell a leaf and floated in the great august cup. The female attendant, not knowing that the fallen leaf was floating in the cup, did not desist from presenting the great august liquor to the Heavenly Sovereign, who, perceiving the leaf floating in the cup, knocked the female attendant down, put his sword to her neck, and was about to cut off her head, when the female attendant spoke to the Heavenly Sovereign, saying: “Slay me not! There is something that I must say to thee;” and forthwith she sang, saying:

2So on her presenting this Song, her crime was pardoned. Then the Empress sang. Her Song said:

3“Present the luxuriant august liquor to the august child of the high-shining sun, who is broad like the leaves, who is brilliant like the blossoms of the broad-foliaged five hundred [-fold branching] true camellia-tree that stands growing by the house of new licking in this high metropolis of Yamato, on the high-timbered mound of the metropolis. The tradition of the thing, too, this!”

4Forthwith the Heavenly Sovereign sang, saying:

5“The people of the great palace, having put on scarfs like the quail-birds, having put their tails together like wagtails, and congregated together like the yard-sparrows, may perhaps to-day be truly steeped in liquor,—the people of the palace of the high-shining sun. The tradition of the thing, too, this.”

6These three Songs are Songs of Heavenly Words. So at this copious feast this female attendant from Mihe was praised and plentifully endowed.

7i.e., “may perhaps to-morrow be truly steeped in liquor” to have been accidentally omitted. There is no doubt but that their insertion would add to the effect of the poem from the point of view of style.