What is the iroha poem?
The iroha poem, in Japanese iroha uta – いろは歌 (いろはうた), was created approximately 1000 years ago by using one of each Japanese hiragana character. So, in other words, the iroha poem is a pangram made of hiragana. For English alphabets, “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” is famous for a kind of pangram. In Japanese the iroha poem is it.The Japanese language is suitable for making pangrams. Every single hiragana character contains a vowel, so we don’t have to worry about a row of consonants. On the other hand, in English, we always have to think how to use vowel sounds effectively. Or perhaps I should say, we have to think how to save vowels as many as possible.
Anyway, in this blog post, I will focus on this traditional Japanese poem and its meaning. Let’s take a closer look at the poem itself.
Contents
Overview of the iroha poem
Below is the iroha poem itself.i ro ha ni ho he to chi ri nu ru wo – 色は匂えど散りぬるを (いろはにほへとちりぬるを)
wa ka yo ta re so tsu ne na ra mu – 我が世誰そ常ならむ (わかよたれそつねならむ)
u wi no o ku ya ma ke fu ko e te – 有為の奥山今日越えて (うゐのおくやまけふこえて)
a sa ki yu me mi shi we i mo se su – 浅き夢見じ酔いもせず (あさきゆめみしゑいもせす)
wa ka yo ta re so tsu ne na ra mu – 我が世誰そ常ならむ (わかよたれそつねならむ)
u wi no o ku ya ma ke fu ko e te – 有為の奥山今日越えて (うゐのおくやまけふこえて)
a sa ki yu me mi shi we i mo se su – 浅き夢見じ酔いもせず (あさきゆめみしゑいもせす)
I’d like to explain the meaning of each line first. And then, I will also explain the idea behind this poem. Before these explanations, let me point out again that this pangram is more than just amazing. It shows clearly how hiragana characters are different from English alphabets.
As I already mentioned, every single hiragana character contains a vowel. So, making a pangram with hiragana is much easier than doing the same thing with English alphabets. However, we need to be aware that the number of hiragana is almost double that of alphabets. If the number of alphabets were doubled, making a pangram with them would not be possible. We would be short of vowels. So, in a way, hiragana can make the impossible possible thanks to the trait.
Meaning of the iroha poem
Honestly, it’s very difficult even for Japanese native speakers to understand the iroha poem, almost all of them can recite it though.Again, but the poem itself was made approximately a thousand years ago. So, all we can do today is assume what is the intention behind each line of it. It could be something religious, and it would be very different from what Japanese people think today. Anyhow I will give it a try. In the next paragraphs, I will focus on the meaning of each line of the poem.
The first line
Below is the first line of the iroha poem.i ro ha ni ho he to chi ri nu ru wo – 色は匂えど散りぬるを (いろはにほへとちりぬるを)
Colors are fragrant, but will scatter.
Flowers are in bloom, but will scatter.
The second line
Below is the second line.wa ka yo ta re so tsu ne na ra mu – 我が世誰そ常ならむ (わかよたれそつねならむ)
Its translation would be;
In our world, who could stay gold forever?
The third line
Below is the third line.u wi no o ku ya ma ke fu ko e te – 有為の奥山今日越えて (うゐのおくやまけふこえて)
In English, the third line could be;
The deep mountain of Uwi, we will cross it today.
The word, “uwi 有為 (うゐ)”, originally comes from Buddhism and means, say, karma of human beings. Here, “the deep mountain” is a metaphor for the accumulated karma.
Then, let’s move to the latter part, “I will cross it today”. Here, “it” seems to be the accumulated karma which I mentioned above. Therefore, to cross it can be understood as to reach to the place which is free from karma of human beings.
Then both parts come together and mean today I will reach to the place which is free from the accumulated karma of human beings. This is the third line.
The last line
Below is the last line.a sa ki yu me mi shi we i mo se su – 浅き夢見じ酔いもせず (あさきゆめみしゑいもせす)
The last, weimosesu, or its kanji and hiragana mixed expression, weimosezu, means unless I’m drunk or while I’m not drunk.
From these translations above, the last line could mean I will not have a paper dream unless I’m drunk.
The iroha poem in English
Then all comes together.Flowers are in bloom, but will scatter.
In our world, who could stay gold forever?
Today I will reach to the place which is free from the accumulated karma of human beings.
I will not have a paper dream unless I’m drunk.
In our world, who could stay gold forever?
Today I will reach to the place which is free from the accumulated karma of human beings.
I will not have a paper dream unless I’m drunk.
And the rest
In the last paragraphs, I explained the meaning of the iroha poem. In the next paragraphs, I’d like to explain some additional information.Again, the iroha poem is a pangram. This is clear as shown above. Nevertheless, there is a room for further discussion; whether the poem has been always a pangram since it was created approximately a thousand years ago. I mean that there is a possibility that the number of hiragana characters has been changing as time goes by. I cannot say how many hiragana characters existed when the poem was created. However, I can make an assumption from the experience.
Today, Japanese native speakers usually use only 44 out of 47 characters, in principal. So, in a way, 3 hiragana characters are now dying slowly but gradually. From this fact, I can assume that there would be a trend where a hiragana writing system has been simplified as time goes by. In addition to this, I can assume that at the point of time the poem was created, the number of characters was bigger than 47. So, honestly, I don’t believe that it has been always a pangram since it was made.
This is all I can say here about the iroha poem. I hope it’s understandable and helpful to feel a piece of Japanese thought behind.
Appendix: when to use
As I explained, the poem itself is very old. So most probably some of you think that this is just an old literary topic. In reality, however, the iroha poem is still in use today. It’s amazing, isn’t it? Then, a question arises naturally; when do Japanese people use such an old poem?To tell the truth, the iroha poem is inseparable from itemizations in Japanese. Characters used in the poem are utilized for them in exactly the same way as English alphabets are. For this kind of itemization, hiragana or katakana characters are used in the order of the iroha poem. Japanese people usually call this order “iroha jun いろは順(いろはじゅん)”. As you may guess, this order is significantly familiar to Japanese people, so it is often used without any notice. This would be very surprising and confusing to Japanese learners. Most probably they cannot understand why an itemization starts with the second hiragana character, “i い”, instead of the first one, “a あ”. Sorry for the inconvenience, but the impressive pangram works behind. Now everything is clear.
By the way, please take a look at an example of an itemization in the iroha order.
- い) りんご blah blah
- ろ) バナナ blah
- は) さくらんぼ blah blah
- に) …