resigned it to the other. So the elder brother refused it, and caused it to be offered to the younger brother, and the younger brother refused it and caused it to be offered to the elder brother, during which mutual cedings many days elapsed. As such mutual ceding took place not [only] once or twice, the fisherman wept from the fatigue of going back wards and forwards. So the proverb says: “Ah! the fisherman weeps on account of his own things.”[1] Meanwhile Uji-no-waki-iratsuko died early.[2] So His Augustness Oho-sazaki did rule the Empire.
[Sect. CXIV.—Emperor Ō-jin (Part XI.—Ama-no-hi-boko Crosses Over to Japan).]
Moreover of old there had been [a man] called by the name of Ama-no-hi-boko,[3] child of the ruler of the land of Shiragi. This person crossed over here [to Japan]. The reason of his crossing over here was [this]: In the land of Shiragi there was a certain lagoon,[4] called by the name of the Agu Lagoon.[5] On the bank of this lagoon[6] a certain poor girl was [taking her] midday sleep. Tunc solis radii, cœlesti arcui similes, in privatas partes impegerunt. Again there was a certain
- ↑ Motowori is probably right in saying that the point of this proverb lies in the consideration that, whereas people in general weep for that which they have not, this fisherman wept on account of the trouble which was caused to him by the fish which he had.
- ↑ Or, “died first.” The use in this place of the character 崩, properly confined to the meaning of the “death of an Emperor,” is remarkable. See Motowori’s observations on the point in Vol. XXXIII, pp. 78–80.
- ↑ Or, according to Motowori’s reading, Ame-no-hi-boko. The characters in the text, 天之日矛, signify “heavenly sun-spear.” But the homonymous characters 海檜槍, with which the name is written in the “Gleanings from Ancient Story,” and which are approved of both by Motowori and by Tanigaha Shisei, signify “fisherman’s chamæcyparis spear.”
- ↑ Apparently nothing more is meant than that there was “a lagoon;” but still the one (一) in this context is curious, and Motowori retains it as hito-tsu no in the Japanese reading. “A certain” seems best to render its force in English, as again in the following sentences, where Motowori interprets it by the character 或. It is of strangely frequent recurrence in the opening sentences of this Section, which are altogether peculiar in style.
- ↑ Agu-numa. The meaning of this name is unknown.
- ↑ The Old Printed Edition has the word “mud” instead of “lagoon.”
