Down the river of Hatsuse
(The secluded)
A bamboo comes floating—
Close-jointed, long-jointed;[1]
The bottom part
Making into a lute,
The upper part
Making into a flute.
Blowing into it (the flute), playing on it (the lute),
Were I to ascend and stand
On the top of Mimoro,
And publish it[2] there,
The very fishes
That pass under the water
Of the pond of Ihare
(The creeper-clad)[3]
Would come to the surface and lament:
The august girdle of small pattern,[4]
(XVII. 14.) Girded on
By our Great Lord
Who rules peacefully,
Hangs down in a knot—
Not a man is there whoever he may be
But would come up and lament.
Winter, 11th month, 5th day. General Chya-mi Mun-kwi of Pèkché, Mun-tök-chi of Silla, Sin-i-hyé and Pun-pha-wi-sa of Ara and Kwi-chön-hyé and Chyung-mun-chi of Pan-phi were sent for to attend Court in a body, and received communication of a gracious Imperial order, giving I-mun and Tè-sa to the Land of Pèkché.
In this month the Land of Pan-phi sent Cheup-chi with
- ↑ Close-jointed at the bottom, long-jointed at the top. At least so one commentator. There are other equally unsatisfactory explanations of this line.
- ↑ Viz. the sadness of the coming of the dawn under the circumstances above described.
- ↑ Iha means "rock." Therefore the epithet in parentheses.
- ↑ This and the next four lines are introduced solely because tare, "to hang down," also means "who." I have endeavoured to imitate this by "knot" and "not." See above, Vol. I. p. 402.
This poem amounts to this:—
"If to the accompaniment of music I were to express the sadness of our parting, the very fishes would lament, and all men who heard me would lament."
