Page:Kojiki by Chamberlain.djvu/226

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140

“Ko-ji-ki,” or Records of Ancient Matters.

[Vol. XIX.

“The woodcock, for which I laid a woodcock-snare and waited in the high castle of Uda, strikes not against it; but a valiant whale strikes against it. If the elder wife ask for fish, slice off a little like the berries of the standing soba; if the younger wife ask for fish, slice off a quantity like the berries of the vigorous sakaki.”^[1]

“Ugh!^[2] pfui! dolt! This is saying thou

↑ This Song is unusually difficult of comprehension: and the latest important commentator, Moribe, seems to show satisfactorily that all his predecessors, Motowori included, more or less misunderstood it. He had at least the advantage of coming after them, and the translator has followed his interpretation excepting with regard to isukuhashi, the Pillow-Word for “whale,” which is here rendered “valiant,” in accordance with the traditional view of its signification. The soba tree is identified by Motowori with the kaname-mochi, “Photinia glabra.” The saka-ki, taken together with its Prefix ichi (here rendered “vigorous”) is supposed in this place to signify, not the usual Cleyera japonica, but another species popularly known as the bishiya-gaki, whose English or Latin name the translator has failed to ascertain. It has a large berry, whereas the soba has a small one.—The following is the gist of Moribe’s exposition of the general signification of the Song: “If for Ukashi’s mean design to kill the Emperor in a gin there be sought a term of comparison in the whales and woodcock forming the Imperial banquet, then in lieu of the woodcock that he expected to catch in the trap that he set, that great whale, the Imperial host, has rushed up against it. Again if, as the fishermen’s wives might do, your (i.e., you soldiers’) wives ask you for fish, then let each of you give to his elder wife, of whom he must have grown weary, only a small and bony portion, and to his younger wife, who is doubtless his heart’s favourite, a good fleshy piece. So jocular a guess at the penchants of the young warriors excites their ardour, which they give vent to in the following shouts.”
↑ Some of the Japanese originals of this string of Interjections are of uncertain import. The translator has been guided by Motowori’s conjectures, with which Moribe mostly agrees. The exclamations are supposed not to form part of the actual Song, but to proceed from the months of the Imperial soldiers. The words rendered “this is saying thou rascal” (such is apparently their meaning) and those rendered “this is laughing [him] to scorn” seem to be glosses as old as the text, which had already become obscure in the eighth century. They are not written altogether phonetically.

[1] This Song is unusually difficult of comprehension: and the latest important commentator, Moribe, seems to show satisfactorily that all his predecessors, Motowori included, more or less misunderstood it. He had at least the advantage of coming after them, and the translator has followed his interpretation excepting with regard to isukuhashi, the Pillow-Word for “whale,” which is here rendered “valiant,” in accordance with the traditional view of its signification. The soba tree is identified by Motowori with the kaname-mochi, “Photinia glabra.” The saka-ki, taken together with its Prefix ichi (here rendered “vigorous”) is supposed in this place to signify, not the usual Cleyera japonica, but another species popularly known as the bishiya-gaki, whose English or Latin name the translator has failed to ascertain. It has a large berry, whereas the soba has a small one.—The following is the gist of Moribe’s exposition of the general signification of the Song: “If for Ukashi’s mean design to kill the Emperor in a gin there be sought a term of comparison in the whales and woodcock forming the Imperial banquet, then in lieu of the woodcock that he expected to catch in the trap that he set, that great whale, the Imperial host, has rushed up against it. Again if, as the fishermen’s wives might do, your (i.e., you soldiers’) wives ask you for fish, then let each of you give to his elder wife, of whom he must have grown weary, only a small and bony portion, and to his younger wife, who is doubtless his heart’s favourite, a good fleshy piece. So jocular a guess at the penchants of the young warriors excites their ardour, which they give vent to in the following shouts.”

[2] Some of the Japanese originals of this string of Interjections are of uncertain import. The translator has been guided by Motowori’s conjectures, with which Moribe mostly agrees. The exclamations are supposed not to form part of the actual Song, but to proceed from the months of the Imperial soldiers. The words rendered “this is saying thou rascal” (such is apparently their meaning) and those rendered “this is laughing [him] to scorn” seem to be glosses as old as the text, which had already become obscure in the eighth century. They are not written altogether phonetically.

[1]

[2]