This crab – where does it come from?
From Tsuruga, a hundred towns away.
Creeping sideways, how far did it crawl?
It hurried to Ichiji Isle, to the Isle of Beauty.
The dabchick plunges,
Breathless and gulping:
I plunged hurriedly
Up and down the slopes
Of the Sasanami Way.
The maiden I met with
On the Kohata Road –
Seen from behind,
Slender as a shield:
The rows of her teeth
Like tiny acorns.
The earth of Wani Slope at Ichii,
The topsoil red as flesh,
The earth undernath
Black, black as jet:
She took the middle earth,
Like the middle of three chestnuts,
And keeping it from the sun
That blinds, makes you bend your head,
She marked her eyebrow in,
Painting them thick, deep-arched.
The girl I saw
And wanted this way,
The girl I saw
And wanted that way,
Is here at the banquet,
Sitting before my eyes,
Sitting at my side.
Reigned 270-312. From Kojiki. Translation by Geoffrey Bownas and Anthony Thwaite.
