So when the Grandee of Kuchiko was repeating this august Song [to the Empress], it was raining heavily. Then upon his, without avoiding the rain, coming and prostrating himself at the front door of the palace,[1] she on the contrary went out at the back door; and on his coming and prostrating himself at the back door of the palace, she on the contrary went out at the front door. Then, as he crept backwards and forwards on his knees in the middle of the court, the streams of water[2] reached to his loins. Owing to the grandee being clad in a garment dyed[3] green and with a red cord, the streams of water brushed against the red cord, and the green all changed to red colour. Now the Grandee of Kuchiko’s younger sister Princess Kuchi[4] was in the service of the Empress.[5] So Princess Kuchi sang, saying:
“Oh! how tearful is my lord elder brother, saying things in the palace of Tsutsuki in Yamashiro!”[6]
Then when the Empress asked the reason,[7] she replied, saying: “He is my brother, the Grandee of Kuchiko.” Thereupon the Grandee of Kuchiko and also his younger sister Princess Kuchi and likewise Nurinomi [all] three took counsel [together], and sent to report to the
- ↑ The Empress was lodging with a private individual, but her presence warrants the application of the term “palace” to his house.
- ↑ It was raining too hard for the water to stop on the surface in the shape of puddles, so it streamed off in little rivulets.
- ↑ Literally, “rubbed.” See Introduction p. xxx. Instead of “green,” we might equally well translate by “blue.” The garment intended must be the upper garment or coat.
- ↑ Kuchi-hime.
- ↑ Literally, “respectfully served the Empress.”
- ↑ The meaning of these lines, which can only be called poetry because they are in metre, is plain: in them the speaker draws the Empress’s attention to the pitiful condition of the messenger who is doing his best to deliver to her the Emperor’s message. Probably the reading in our text has been corrupted; for that in the “Chronicles,” which may be translated thus: “Oh! how tearful am I when I see my lord elder brother,” etc., is much preferable.
- ↑ Scil. of her attendant thus taking the messenger’s part.
“wooden hoes,” is interpreted by Moribe to mean “little hoes.” “Where the seedlings grow in succession” is the English rendering of tsugi-ne fu, the Pillow-Word for Yamashiro (see Sect. CXXIII Note 11).
