“Now then! Oh Prince Mima-ki-iri! Oh Prince Mi-ma-ki-iri! Ignorant that they, to steal and slay one’s life, cross backwards and. forwards by the back-door, cross backwards and forwards by the front door and spy,—Oh Prince Mima-ki-iri!”[1]
Hereupon His Augustness Oho-biko, thinking it strange, turned his horse back, and asked the young girl, saying: “These words that thou speakest, what are they?” The young girl replied, saying: “I said nothing; I was only singing a song,”—and thereupon she suddenly vanished, none could see whither. So His Augustness Oho-biko returned up again [to the capital] and made a report [of the matter] to the Heavenly Sovereign, who replied and charged him [,saying]: “Methinks this is a sign that my half-brother, King Take-hani-yasu,[2] who dwells in the land of Yamashiro, is planning some foul plot.[3] [Do thou,] uncle, raise an army, and go [after him].” When he forthwith sent him off, joining to him his Augustness Hiko-kuni-buku,[4] ancestor of the Grandees of Wani,[5] they set sacred jars on the Pass of Wani,[6] and went away. Thereupon, when they reached the River
- ↑ The meaning of this poem, which must be considered as one prolonged exclamation, is: “Oh my sovereign! oh my sovereign! Heedless or ignorant of the plots hatched against thy life near the very precincts of thy palace, thou sendest away thy soldiers to fight in distant parts. Oh my sovereign!”—It will be remembered that Prince Mima-ki-iri was the (abbreviated) native name of the reigning monarch, commonly known to posterity by his “canonical name” of Sūjin. The word rendered “life” is literally “thread,” and the Impersonal Pronoun “one’s,” used in the translation, must be understood to refer to the Emperor.
- ↑ See Sect. LXI, Notes 12 and 10.
- ↑ Literally, “foul heart.”
- ↑ I.e., probably, “prince land-pacifier.” The first element of the compound is sometimes omitted.
- ↑ Wani no omi. Wani (“crocodile”) is the name of a place in the province of Yamato.
- ↑ Wani-saka. For the setting of jars conf. Sect LX, Note 20.
Or, “Hill of Hera,”—Hera-zaka. The “Chronicles” write this name with the characters 平坂 Hira-zaka, i.e., “Even Pass” or “Hill.”
