Ita augaste coivit [cum illâ], et procreavit filium Uji-no-waki-iratsuko.
[Sect. CVII.—Emperor Ō-jin (Part IV.—He Grants Princess Kami-naga to His Son Oho-sazaki).]
The Heavenly Sovereign, hearing of the beauty of Princess Kami-naga,[1] daughter of the Duke of Muragata[2] in the land of Himuka, and thinking to employ her,[3] sent down for her,[4] whereupon the Heir Apparent[5] His Augustness Oho-sazaki, having seen the maiden land at
- ↑ Kami-naga-hime. The name signifies “the long-haired princess.”
- ↑ Muragata no kimi. Muragata seems to signify “many towns.”
- ↑ I.e., wed her.
- ↑ Literally, “summoned her up.” The same phrase occurs immediately below.
- ↑ 太子. Mabuchi thinks that 御子, “august child,” should be substituted for the reading in the text. But Motowori insists that the title translated Heir Apparent was anciently borne by all the sons of an Emperor, and that consequently no emendation is called for.
for that was of too bright a red, rejecting likewise the lower layer, for that was too dark, but taking the middle, which was of the correct blue tint, and drying it, not in the fierce, but in a mildly tempered, sun-light. And now this maiden, for whom his heart had been panting and turning this way and that ever since the previous day, is actually seated opposite to him, nay! at his very side, and he is feasting in her sweet company.—Tsunuga is the name of a place in the province of Echizen. “Far-distant” is an imperfect attempt at rendering the force of the Pillow-Word momo-dzutafu, which implies that the traveller must pass through a hundred other places before reaching his destination. “Whither reaches its sideward motion?” signifies “whither is it going with its sideward motion?” Ichiji-shima and Mishima arc places of which nothing is known, so that the allusion to them is obscure. At this point Motowori’s interpretation diverges from that of Moribe, which has been followed throughout. Sasanami, hero rendered “wavelets,” is taken by him, as by the older commentators, as the name of a place, and the description of the maiden’s teeth is misundertood to signify that she had a beak filled with a row of teeth like the water-caltrop! Motowori also would here divide the Song in two, a proceeding for which there is not sufficient warrent. On other minor points, too, his decisions do not seem so happy as Moribe’s. The views of both commentators will be found at length in Motowori’s Commentary, Vol. XXXII, pp. 33–51, and in Moribe’s “Idzu no Koto-Waki,” in loco. “Three chestnuts” (mitsu-guri no) is a common Pillow-Word for naka, “middle,” founded on the fact, real or supposed, that one burr always contains three nuts, whereof one of course is in the middle, between the other two.
