this time the Imperial Princess was weaving, and her women made a song, saying:—
The metal loom of Heaven—
The everlasting—[1]
The metal-loom where
Medori is weaving
Stuff for an august cloak
For Hayabusa wake!
Upon this the Emperor saw that the Imperial Prince Hayabusa (XI. 24.) wake had secretly wedded her, and was angry. But out of regard for what the Empress might say, and also from respect for the principle which governs the relation of stem and branches,[2] he was patient and did not punish him. Now the Imperial Prince Hayabusa wake was lying down for a little with his head pillowed on the Imperial Princess's knee. Whereupon he addressed her, saying:—"Which is the swiftest, the wren or the falcon?"[3] She said, "The falcon." Then the Imperial Prince said:—"That means that I shall be first." The Emperor heard these words, and his wrath was aroused again. At this time the Imperial Prince Hayabusa wake's attendants made a song, saying:—
The falcon
Ascending to Heaven
With soaring flight—
Let him seize the wren
On the top of the Tsuki trees.[4]
When the Emperor heard this song, he flew into a great rage, and said:—"We were unwilling for a private cause of hate to destroy one related to us, and we were patient. Why should a private cause of quarrel be converted into a matter which affects the State?"
So he wished to kill the Imperial Prince Hayabusa wake.
- ↑ The word translated everlasting is hisakata, lit. long-hard, an epithet involving a similar conception of the sky to our word "firmament." By metal is probably meant "adorned with metal fittings."
- ↑ i.e. the head of the family and the junior members.
- ↑ Hayabusa means "falcon."
- ↑ In the original itsuki or idzuki. This the commentators explain as fifty (i) tsuki trees. But how would "sacred (idzu) tree" do:—in allusion to the Emperor's rank?
