“Whereas my heart always felt like flying through the sky, my legs are now unable to walk. They have become rudder-shaped.”[1] So that place was called by the name of Tagi. Owing to his being very weary with progressing a little further beyond that place, he lent upon an august staff to walk a little. So that place is called by the name of the Tsuwe-tsuki pass.[2] On arriving at the single pine-tree on Cape Wotsu,[3] an august sword, which he had forgotten at that place before when augustly eating,[4] was still [there] not lost. Then he augustly sang, saying:
“O mine elder brother, the single pine-tree that art on Cape Wotsu which directly faces Wohari! If thou, single pine-tree! wert a person, I would gird [my] sword [upon thee], I would clothe thee with [my] garments,—O mine elder brother, the single pine-tree!”[5]
When he departed thence and reached the village of Mihe,[6] he again said: “My legs are like three-fold crooks,[7] and very weary.” So that place
- ↑ The word here rendered “rudder” is tagishi, which is written phonetically and does not occur elsewhere, except in a few Proper Names of doubtful import. There is however some probability in favour of the meaning assigned to it by the native commentators.
- ↑ Tzuwe-tsuki-zaka, i.e., “the pass of leaning on a staff.” It is in the province of Ise between Yokaichi and Ishi-yakushi.
- ↑ Wotsu-no-saki, in the province of Ise. The name probably signifies “harbour of the mountain declivity.”
- ↑ The former portion of the text tells us nothing either of the meal or of the sword here mentioned.
- ↑ This quaintly simple and apparently very ancient poem needs no elucidation.
- ↑ In Ise. Mi-he signifies “three-fold.”
- ↑ This is the literal rendering of the text. Motowori thinks, however, that we should understand that there were various swellings on his legs, such as would be produced if the limb were tightly tied round with cord in three places.
arrived on the Moor of Tagi.” But the character 上 has in this context scarcely any meaning. The real etymology of Tagi (in classical and modem parlance taki without the nigori) is “rapid” or “waterfall,” the cascade formed by the River Yō-rō in Mino being alluded to. The derivation in the next sentence of the text from tagishi, supposed to mean “a rudder,” is a mere fancy.
