Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters) · 191 of 191

XCVIII. (Sect. CLIX, Note 3.)

Wotome no I-kakuru woka wo

Insight

The opening lines of Appendix III, ‘Wotome no I-kakuru woka wo / Kana-suki mo / I-hochi mo ga mo / Suki-banuru mono,’ come from Section CLIX of the Yū-riyaku cycle — the metal-spade mound passage. The image is concrete and characteristic of the late imperial songs: a hill where a woman has hidden, and a wish for so many spades that the digging-out becomes possible. The oldest layer of Japanese lyric is unembarrassed by the practical and the agricultural in a way that the later, more refined Heian tradition would distance itself from. Reading these final pages of Chamberlain’s appendix you can feel the deep continuity that runs from these eighth-century court songs through the Manyōshū anthology of about 759 (which preserves many sister versions of these same Kojiki songs and was the primary text Mabuchi spent his life on) and forward to the rural folk-song collections that ethnomusicologists like Yanagita Kunio were still recording in early twentieth-century Japanese mountain villages. The appendix is the philological pivot between the chronicle and the long, living tradition of Japanese lyric that descends from it.

Kana-suki mo

I-hochi mo ga mo

Suki-banuru mono

XCIX. (SECT. CLX, NOTE 4.)

Makimuke no Hishiro no mi-ya ha

Asa-hi no Hi-deru mi-ya

Yufu-hi no Hi-gakeru mi-ya

Take no ne no Nedaru-mi-ya

Ko no ne no Ne-bafu mi-ya

Yahoniyoshi

I-kidzuki no mi-ya

Ma-ki-saku

Hi no mi kado

Nihi-nahe-ya ni

Ohi-dateru

Momo-daru

Tsuki ga ye ha

Ho tsu ye ha

Ame wo oheri

Naka tsu ye ha

Adzuma wo oheri

Shi dzu ye ha

Hina wo oheri

Ho tsu ye no Ye no ura-ba ha

Naka tsu ye ni

Ochi-furabahe

Naka tsu ye no Ye no ura-ba ha

Shimo tsu ye ni

Ochi-furabahe

Shi dzu ye no Ye no ura-ba ha p. A25

Ari-ginu no Mihe no ko ga

Sasagaseru

Midzu-tama-uki ni

Ukishi abura

Ochi-nadzusahi

Mina koworo-koworo ni 27

Ko shi mo

Aya ni kashikoshi

Taka-hikaru

Hi no mi ko

Koto no Katari-goto mo

Ko wo ba

C. (SECT. CLX, NOTE 5.)

Yamato no Kono takechi ni

Ko-dakaru

Ichi no tsukasa

Nihi-nahe-ya ni

Ohi-dateru

Habiro yo-tsu ma-tsubaki 28

So ga ha no Hirori-i-mashi

So no hana no Teri-i-masu

Taka-hikaru

Hi no mi ko ni

To-yo mi ki

Tate-matsurase

Koto no Katari-goto mo

Ko wo ba

CI. (SECT. CLX, NOTE 6.)

Momoshiki no Oho-miya-hito ha

Udzura-tori

Hire tori-kakete

Mana-bashira

Wo yuki-ahe

Niha-suzume

Uzu-sumari-wite

Kefu mo ka mo

Saka mi-dzuku-rashi

Taka-hikaru

Hi no miya-hito

Koto no Katari-goto mo

Ko wo ba p. A26

CII. (SECT. CLXI, NOTE 2.)

Mina-sosoku

Omi no wotome

Ho-dari torasu mo

Ho-dari tori

Kataku torase

Shita-gataku

Ya-gataku torase

Ho dari torasu ko

CIII. (SECT. CLXI, NOTE 4)

Yasumishishi

Wa ga oho-kimi no Asa-to ni ha

I-yori-datashi

Yufu-to ni ha

I-yori-datasu

Waki-dzuki ga

Shita no Ita ni mo ga

A se wo

366 CIV. (SECT CLXV, NOTES 8 AND 12 )

Oho-miya no Woto tsu hata-de

Sumi katabukeri

CV. (SECT. NOTES 9 AND 12 )

Oho-takumi

Wojinami koso

Sumi katabukere

CVI. (SECT. CLXV, NOTES IO AND I2.)

Oho-kimi no Kokoro wo yurami

Omi no ko no Ya-he no shiba-kaki

Iri-tatazu ari

CVII. (SECT. CLXV. NOTE 12.)

Sh ho-se no Na-wori wo mireba

Asobi-kuru

Shibi ga hata-de ni

Tsuma tateri-miyu

CVIII. (SECT. CLXV, NOTES I1 AND I2.)

Oho-kimi no Mi ko no shiba-kaki p. A27

Ya-fu-zhimari

Shimari-motohoshi

Kiremu shiba-kaki

Yakemu shiba-kaki 29

CIX. (SECT. CLXV, NOTE 12.)

Ofuwo yo shi

Shibi tsuku ama yo

Shi ga areba

Ura-kohoshiki-kemu

Shibi tsuku ama 30

CX. (SECT. CLXVII, NOTE 10.)

Asa-ji-hara

Wo-dani wo sugite

Momo-dzutafu

Nute yuraku mo

Oki-me kurashi mo

CXI. (SECT. CLXVII, NOTE, 11.)

Oki-me mo ya

Afumi no Oki-me

Asu yori ha

Mi-yama-gakurite

Miyezu ka mo aramu

Footnotes A1:1 There are few various readings of the text of these poems. Where any occur, the translator has been guided by the decisions of Motowori and Moribe. Occasionally these two authorities differ as to the division of the words into lines, and Moribe in particular does not hesitate to propose such emendations as seem to him necessary. The translator has in almost all cases adhered to the traditional text, but gives in foot-notes such emendations as appear worthy of notice. Moribe’s division of the lines being in almost every case preferable to Motowori’s, it has however here been generally adopted.

A3:2 Motowori reads Magishi Atane tsuki as two lines.

A3:3 Motowori reads Sagiri ni Tatamu zo as two lines.

A4:4 Motowori reads Mitani Futa watarasu as two lines.

A5:5 Motowori reads Uda no Taka-ki ni as two lines.

A5:6 Moribe emends haru to hari.

A5:7 Motowori divides these lines thus: Tachi-soba no mi no Nakeku we.

A9:8 Motowori reads gomoreru as a line by itself, and similarly uruhashi as a line by itself.

A9:9 Moribe restores the reading of the first line of this poem to Naduzki-ta no, and both he and Motowori suggest conjectural concluding lines to supplement the evidently incomplete text. Moribe’s are very elegant:

Shi ga tsura no I-hahi motohori

Motohorite

Ne-naki tohedomo

Koto mo norasanu

A10:10 Moribe reads Umi-ga ha isahofu as one line. It is difficult, on any method of division, to find rhythm in this Song.

A11:11 Motowori strangely makes Mi ki no Aya ni into two lines. The syllable ki in the last line of the Song is supplied by Moribe.

A11:12 Motowori divides these lines thus: Han ami ha shi Hishi nasu. He also proposes here to divide the poem in two.

A12:13 Motowori divides these lines thus: Mayo-gaki ko ni. Kaki tare.

A12:14 The defective text of this line is restored by the help of the parallel passage in the “Chronicles.”

A13:15 Moribe proposes to emend the second half of this poem to Koto nagushi we

Kokoro-gushi we

Ware wehi ni keri.

A14:16 Near the commencement of this Song Motowori divides the lines thus:

Watari-ze ni

Tateru

Adzusa-yumi

Mo yumi and again at the end:

I-kirazu zo kuru

Adzusa-yumi

Ma-yumi.

A14:17 See Sect. CXXII, Note, 4 for this doubtful word.

A15:18 Motowori divides this line in two, thus:

Habiro

Yutsuma-tsubaki.

A16:19 Instead of these concluding long lines Motowori divides thus:

Wa ga mikahoshi

Kumi ha

Kadzuraki

Taka-miya

Wagihe no atari.

A16:20 Motowori reads the words Hara ni aru as a separate line.

A20:21 Moribe, following the reading in the “Chronicles,” omits the Postposition no after Karu; and Motowori reads hato no as a line by itself.

A21:22 To the word ashi Moribe would prefix the Honorific mi which he finds in an old MS. The metre would gain by this emendation of the line.

A21:23 This is Moribe’s emendation of usual reading ka.

A22:24 Motowori divides Ari to ihaba koso ni into two lines after the Particle to, and Moribe omits the Particle ni after koso.

A23:25 It seems less good to divide thus with Motowori:

Tare zo oho-mahe ni

Mawosu, or thus with Mabuchi:

Tare zo

Oho-maye ni mawosu.

A24:26 Motowori divides the lines of this Song thus:

Yasumishishi

Wa ga oho-kimi no Asobashishi

Shishi no Yami-shishi no Utaki kashikomi

Wa ga nike

Noborishi

Ari-wo no Hari no hi no yeda.

A25:27 Motowori divides this line in two, thus:

Mina koworo

Koworo ni

A25:28 Motowori divides this line in two after the word ha-biro.

A27:29 Moribe’s proposal to emend yakemu to yaremu would be acceptable if it were supported by the authority of any texts.

A27:30 Motowori’s edition and most other texts have shibi as the final word, But Moribe’s emendation to ama is necessary to the sense, and has at least the authority of one MS. to support it.

XCVIII. (Sect. CLIX, Note 3.)

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