The Iroha

The Japanese poem, Iroha, is a famous poem from the Heian Period of Japanese history, and is attributed to the founder of Shingon Buddhism, Kūkai, though research suggests that this was written as a tribute to him, not by him. The poem, in Japanese (including archaic letters) look like so:

いろはにほへと
ちりぬるをわか
よたれそつねな
らむうゐのおく
やまけふこえて
あさきゆめみし
ゑひもせす

The romanization as it would have been pronounced back then:

I ro ha ni ho he to
chi ri nu ru wo wa ka
yo ta re so tsu ne na
ra mu u wi no o ku
ya ma ke fu ko e te
a sa ki yu me mi shi
we hi mo se su

And this translation comes from Professor Ryuichi Abé’s The Weaving of Mantra:

Although its scent still lingers on
the form of a flower has scattered away
For whom will the glory
of this world remain unchanged?
Arriving today at the yonder side
of the deep mountains of evanescent existence
We shall never allow ourselves to drift away
intoxicated, in the world of shallow dreams.

Of course, this refers to the impermanence of life, and the notion of “crossing over” to the other shore of Enlightenment.

What’s remarkable about this poem is that each letter in the Japanese alphabet is exactly once. Also, later research mentioned in Professor Abé’s book showed that the last letter of each line, when put together, formed another sentence that read, “[he] died without sin.” This probably refers to Kūkai the founder of Shingon Buddhism in Japan.

Older generations of Japanese often learned the alphabet by memorizing the Iroha, and the Iroha to this day is still a fascinating and often-used poem in Japanese culture.

It’s amazing what people can do with literature, let along something Buddhist like this. Who said Buddhism was dull and dry?