“But I will reward you,” said the Mikado. “For I should be as just as you are generous. Here is the sword Shichi-no-O (the King of the Wild Boars) for since you can wield a sword so nobly, it is fitting that you have a noble sword, my brave Yorimasa. Two things delight the heart of brave men, love and duty, woman and warfare. Since you have been successful with the one, I will give you success with the other. It has come to my ears that you love Ajama[7] and that she loves you. Take her and may you be happy and may your children live and prosper and grow up to serve their emperor as their father has served his.”
Then Yorimasa bent low before him and thanked him; and a gentleman of the court composed a verse about Yorimasa, and sang a song to him in which he compared his rapid rise into favor to the cuckoo’s flight toward the crescent moon. But Yorimasa was as modest as he was brave and would not admit that he deserved any special praise. So he answered the poet’s song by singing these lines:
“Like the cuckoo
So high to soar
How is it so?
Only my bow I bent,
That only sent the shaft.”
But he and Ajama were soon married, and lived happily ever after, in the sunshine of the Mikado’s favor.
Footnotes
[7] Ajama, Flowering Sweet Flag. In Japan all women are named for flowers.