[Sect. LXXXVII.—Emperor Kei-kō (Part XII.—Yamato-take Wooes Princess Miyazu).]
Having crossed over from that land into the land of Shinanu[1] and subdued the Deity of the Shinanu pass,[2] 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:
“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.”[3]
- ↑ Sec Sect. XXXII, Note 26.
- ↑ Shinanu no saka, a pass between the provinces of Shinano and Mino which is no longer used.
- ↑ Even taken apart from its immediate context, the import of this Song is plain, notwithstanding Moribe’s efforts to explain away its indelicacy. The details of the first part, however, require some comment in order to make them comprehensible to the European reader, the words in question being those which might in English be rendered “thy fragile, slender, delicate arm [which resembles] a post striking against the sharp sickle on Mount Kagu of the gourd-shaped heaven.” In Japanese they run thus:
Hisa-kata no
Ame no Kagu-yama
To-kama ni
Sa-wataru kuhi:—
Hiha-boso
Ta-waya-gahina wo, etc.It 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
