Page:The Spirit of Japanese Poetry (Noguchi).djvu/84

80 lying deities.’ He pushed away his lute, playing no more, and sat silent. Then the deities became very angry, and said through the mouth of the Empress: ‘Altogether as for this Empire, it is not a land over which thou oughtest to rule. Do thou go only the road to Hades!’ The Prime Minister, the noble Takeuchi, said: ‘I am filled with awe, my Heavenly Sovereign! Pray, continue playing thy great august lute.’ The Heavenly Sovereign slowly drew his lute to him and languidly played on it. But when the sound almost immediately became inaudible, the Heavenly Sovereign was found, alas, dead.” What a splendid subject this for a ballad or poem for a poet of Meredith’s class.

The first note we encounter in opening the pages of this Records of Ancient Matters is our ancestors’ conception of death as defilement; here we have a story of Izanami or His Augustness the Male-Who-Invites, who followed after his dead wife, Her Augustness the Female-Who-Invites, to the Land of Hades. When the male deity entreated her to come back again to the world, saying: “The lands that I and thou made are not yet finished making; pray come back!” Her Augustness the Female-Who-Invites was pleased to consent, but begged her husband to wait for a little while, as she had to discuss the matter with the deities of Hades. And she made him promise not to attempt to