Kojiki 25

Section XXV. The Cup Pledge

Again this Deity’s Chief Empress, Her Augustness the Forward-Princess, was very jealous. So the Deity her husband, being distressed, was about to go up from Idzumo to the Land of Yamato; and as he stood attired, with one august hand on the saddle of his august horse and one august foot in the august stirrup, he sang, saying:

“When I take and attire myself so carefully in my august garments black as the true jewels of the moor, and, like the birds of the offing, look at my breast,—though I raise my fins, [I say that] these are not good, and cast them off on the waves on the beach. When I take and attire myself so carefully in my august garments green as the kingfisher, and, like the birds of the offing, look at my breast,—though I raise my fins, [I say that] these, too, are not good, and cast them off on the waves on the beach. When I take and attire myself so carefully in my raiment dyed in the sap of the dye-tree, the pounded madder sought in the mountain fields, and, like the birds of the offing, look at my breast,—though I raise my fins, [I say that] they are good. My dear younger sister, Thine Augustness! Though thou say that thou will not weep,—if like the flocking birds, I flock and depart, if, like the led birds, I am led away and depart, thou wilt hang down thy head like a single eulalia upon the mountain and thy weeping shall indeed rise as the mist of the morning shower. Thine Augustness [my] spouse like the young herbs! The tradition of the thing, too, this!”

Then his Empress, taking a great august liquor-cup, and drawing near and offering it to him, sang, saying:—

“Oh! Thine Augustness the Deity-of-Eight-Thousand-Spears! [Thou], my [dear] Master-of-the-Great-Land indeed, being a man, probably hast on the various island-headlands that thou seest, and on every beach-headland that thou lookest on, a wife like the young herbs. But as for me, alas! being a woman, I have no man except thee; I have no spouse except thee. Beneath the fluttering of the ornamented fence, beneath the softness of the warm coverlet, beneath the rustling of the the cloth coverlet, [thine] arms white as rope of paper-mulberry bark softly patting [my] breast soft as the melting snow, and patting [each other] interlaced, stretching out and pillowing [ourselves] on [each other’s arms],—true jewel-arms, and with outstretched legs, will we sleep. Lift up the luxuriant august liquor!”

She having thus sung, they at once pledged [each other] by the cup with [their hands] on [each other’s] necks, and are at rest till the present time. These are called divine words.