Iroha

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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 poem

This poem was probably written in the Heian era (794-1185) and it was attributed to Kūkai, the Buddhist monk founder of the Shingon school.
The first appearance oh this text is in 1079 in the Konkōmyōsaishōōkyō Ongi (“Readings of Golden Light Sutra”). It was written using man’yōgana characters, an old form of Japanese writing, in lines of five or seven characters (a tipical number of syllabes in Japanese poetry).
This poem is a pangram, because it contains each character of the Japanese syllabary, including the no more utilized syllabes “we” and “wi” and excluding the “n” character.
In the oldest version, in Man’yō-gana characters, the last syllable of each line, read in sequence, reveal a hidden sentence which means “die without wrong-doing”. This can be an eulogy in praise of Kūkai, supporting the notion that the this poem was written after Kūkai’s death.
This poem’s sentences are very cryptic and reflect the idea of “mujo”, the impermanence of everything, a fundamental concept of Buddhism.

Translation

Even the colored and fragrant flowers are doomed to scatter.
Who in our world is unchanging?
Today I crossed the deep mountains of evanescent existence
I’ll not have superficial dreams nor be confused.

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