|
The iroha is a Japanese poem most likely written sometime during the
Heian era (794-1179AD). Authorship is traditionally ascribed to the Heian
era Japanese Buddhist priest and scholar kuukai (空海) (774-835).
The text of the poem in hiragana (with archaic ゐ and ゑ) is:
- 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 text of the poem in kanji and kana is:
- 色は匂へと
- 散りぬるを
- 我が世誰そ
- 常ならむ
- 有為の奥山
- 今日越えて
- 浅き夢見し
- 酔ひもせす
The poem exhibits the 7-5-syllable repeated verse structure.
The iroha is unique in that it uses each and every kana precisely once
(with the exception of ん [-n], which was added to the syllabary later). For
this reason, the poem was used as an ordering of the Japanese syllabary
until the Meiji era reforms in the 19th century.
- The iroha is used as an indicator of sound changes in the spoken Japanese
language in the Heian era.
- The word いろは (iroha) can also be used to mean "ABC's" or "The basics" in
Japanese.
|
