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p. 315

[SECT. CXI.--EMPEROR Ō-JIN (PART VIII.--THE EMPEROR INTOXICATED).]

Again there came over [to Japan] the ancestor of the Hada Rulers, 1 the ancestor of the Aya Suzerains, 2 and likewise a man who knew how to distil liquor, and whose name was Nim-pan, 3 while another name for him was Susukori. 4 So this [man] Susukori distilled some great august liquor, and presented it to the Heavenly Sovereign, who, excited with the great august liquor that had been presented to him augustly sang, saying:

"I have become intoxicated with the august liquor distilled by Susukori. I have become intoxicated with the soothing liquor, with the smiling liquor." 5

On his walking out singing thus, he hit with his [254] august staff a large stone in the middle of the Ohosaka 6 road, upon which the stone ran away. So the proverb says: "Hard stones get out of a drunkard's way."


Footnotes

315:1 p. 315 Hada na miyatsuko, , a "gentile name." Hada is the native Japanese word used as the equivalent of the Chinese name , Ch’in. Its origin is uncertain.

315:2 Aya no ataha , a "gentile name." The use of Aya to represent the Chinese name , Han, is as difficult to account for as is that of Hada mentioned in the preceding Note.

315:3 . Another and more Japanese-like reading, Niho, is invented by Motowori; but the older editors read Nim-pan according to the usual Sinico-Japanese sound of the characters. The modern Korean reading would be In-pon.

315:4 Written phonetically .

315:5 Thus translated, this Song is too clear to need any explanation. The lines, however, which are rendered by "with the soothing liquor, with the smiling liquor."--in Japanese koto nagu shi we-guzhi-ni,--are in reality extremely obscure, and Moribe understands them to signify, "Oh! p. 316 how difficult it is for me to speak! Oh! how ill at ease I am!" In order to do so he has, however, to change and add to the text; and the translator, though not sure of being in the right path, has preferred to follow Motowori, whose interpretation, without requiring any such extreme measures, yet gives a very plausible sense.

315:6 See Sect. LXIV, Note 25.


Next: Section CXII.--Emperor Ō-jin (Part IX.--Troubles Which Followed His Decease)