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The first appearance of the Iroha, in Konkōmyōsaishōōkyō Ongi (金光明最勝王経音義?), was in seven lines: six with seven morae each, and one with five. It was also written in man'yōgana.
以呂波耳本部止
千利奴流乎和加
餘多連曽津祢那
良牟有為能於久
耶万計不己衣天
阿佐伎喩女美之
恵比毛勢須
Structurally, however, the poem follows the standard 7-5 pattern of Japanese poetry (with one hypometric line), and in modern times it is generally written that way, in contexts where line breaks are used. The text of the poem in hiragana (with archaic ゐ and ゑ but without voiced consonant marks) is:
| Archaic | Modern | Ordering (see usage) | Translation | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| hiragana | transliteration | kanji and hiragana | pronunciation | numbers | |
| いろはにほへと | i ro ha ni ho he to | 色は匂へど | Iro wa nioedo | 1 - 7 | Even the blossoming flowers |
| ちりぬるを | chi ri nu ru wo | 散りぬるを | Chirinuru o | 8 - 12 | Will eventually scatter |
| わかよたれそ | wa ka yo ta re so | 我が世誰ぞ | Wa ga yo dare zo | 13 - 18 | Who in our world |
| つねならむ | tsu ne na ra mu | 常ならむ | Tsune naramu | 19 - 23 | Is unchanging? |
| うゐのおくやま | u wi no o ku ya ma | 有為の奥山 | Ui no okuyama | 24 - 30 | The deep mountains of vanity-- |
| けふこえて | ke fu ko e te | 今日越えて | Kyō koete | 31 - 35 | We cross them today |
| あさきゆめみし | a sa ki yu me mi shi | 浅き夢見じ | Asaki yume miji | 36 - 42 | And we shall not see superficial dreams |
| ゑひもせす | we hi mo se su | 酔ひもせず | Ei mo sezu. | 43 - 47 | Nor be deluded. |
Notes:
- Archaic hiragana uses ゐ and ゑ, which are now only used in certain Okinawan orthographies; modern writing uses voiced consonant marks (with dakuten.) This is used as an indicator of sound changes in the spoken Japanese language in the Heian era.
An English translation by Professor Ryuichi Abe reads as:
- 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.
Research by Komatsu Hideo has revealed that the last syllable of each line of the Man'yō-gana original (止加那久天之須), when put together, reveals a hidden sentence, toka nakute shisu (咎無くて死す), which means "die without wrong-doing". It is thought that this might be eulogy in praise of Kūkai, further supporting the notion that the Iroha was written after Kūkai's death.
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