Then the Princess of Nuna-kaha, without yet opening the door, sang from the inside saying:—
“Thine Augustness the Deity-of-Eight-Thousand-Spears! Being a maiden like a drooping plant, my heart is just a bird on a sand-bank by the shore; it will now indeed be a dotterel. Afterwards it will be a gentle bird; so as for thy life, do not deign to die. Oh! swiftly-flying heaven-racing messenger! the tradition of the thing, too, this!”[1]
- ↑ The drift of the poem is this: "Being a tender maiden, my heart flutters like the birds on the sandy islets by the beach, and I cannot yet be thine. Yet do not die of despair; for I will soon comply with their desires.”—The word nuye-kuta (here rendered “drooping plant,” in accordance with the views of the
creature.” The Wa-Kun Shiwori says that “it is a bird much larger than a pigeon, and having a loud and mournful cry.” It is likewise said to come out at nighttime and retire during the day, for which reason doubtless Mabuchi likens it to the owl. A very ancient and curious Chinese book entitled the “Mountain and Sea Classic” (山海經), the modern editions of which contain extremely droll illustrations of fabulous creatures, tells us of a bird called the “white nuye (白鵺), which is like a pheasant, with markings on its head, white wings, and yellow feet, and whose flesh is a certain cure for the hiccough.” The characters 鵼 and 鶍, with which, as well as with 鵺, the word nuye is variously written, seem to be unauthorized.—The line here (following Motowori and Moribe’s view) rendered “Would that I could beat them till they were sick!” will also bear the interpretation formerly proposed by Keichiyu, “Would that I could beat them till they left off!”—The last five lines, here rendered “Oh! swiftly-flying heaven-racing messenger,” etc., are extremely obscure. It is possible that ishi tafu ya (rendered “Oh! swiftly flying,” in deference to Motowori’s and Moribe’s view) may be but a meaningless refrain. “Heaven-racing messenger” is tolerably certain. Of the rest it is not easy to make sense. Motowori proposes to credit the five lines in question with the following general meaning: “May this song, like a messenger, run down to future ages, preserving for them the tradition of this event!” Moribe, in his Critique of Motowori’s Commentary, supposes the lines in question to be an addition made by the official singers, who in later times sang these songs as an accompaniment to dances. Whatever their origin and proper signification, it is plain that they had come to be used as a refrain, from which the first two lines were sometimes omitted, as we see in some of the songs further on.
