Koke no musumade;
which may be literally translated: “May Our Lord’s reign last for a thousand, eight thousand ages, until little stones become rocks and are covered with moss.”
A celebrated minister of state who lived a thousand years ago, composed the following:—
Kokoro dani
Makoto no michi ni
Kanainaba
Inorazu totemo
Kami ya mamoran.
“If only our hearts follow the path of rectitude, the Gods will protect us without our prayers.”
An Emperor saw one day in a private garden a plum-tree with a bush-warbler’s nest in it. He took fancy to it and ordered it to be transplanted to his palace-ground. The owner, who was a poetess and court lady, obeyed as a matter of course, but to show her reluctance, she hung to a branch of the tree a piece of paper with the following ode:—