Iroha uta | Page 1 | The Japanese Student Guild | Guild Forums

NakaTake
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Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 7:56 pm

Has anyone else heard of it?
It is an old poem which uses all hiragana characters exactly once.
I heard about a while ago, but never remembered to look it up, but I just did and look what I found!!

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

Note to the some characters here; they are obsolete hiragana which were used until about WWII era I believe. However, (wi) and (we) are no longer used. I have heard them said as "i" and "e" in similar fashion to saying "wo" as "o" and "he" as "e" when appropriate.

Just thought I'd share that bit with you.
What is your favorite Japanese poem?

I really like Ame nimo makezu by Miyazawa Kenji

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 8:11 pm

this poem used to also serve as a kind of "alphabet," like reciting this poem was kind of like reciting your ABCs, before the order became a i u e o ka ki ku ke ko etc.

I understand Japanese poetry about as well as I understand English poetry (i.e. not at all) but Japanese poems have a beautiful flow to them, even if I don't catch all the imagery involved

Freakezette
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NakaTake
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Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 8:57 pm

Freakezette

this poem used to also serve as a kind of "alphabet," like reciting this poem was kind of like reciting your ABCs, before the order became a i u e o ka ki ku ke ko etc.

I understand Japanese poetry about as well as I understand English poetry (i.e. not at all) but Japanese poems have a beautiful flow to them, even if I don't catch all the imagery involved

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. I heard the same thing about Iroha uta. There used to be this thing I learned in Japanese school when I was younger, and my grandma used to recite it. It was like... A ka sa ta na, ha ma ya ra wa...etc. It was how I remembered all of the aiueo stuff when I was younger XD.

I have a kanji version of this, if you like, it's older language, so it's harder to understand, but,

色は匂へど,散りぬるを
我が世誰, ぞ常ならむ
有為の奥山, 今日越えて
浅き夢見じ, 酔ひもせず

I wasn't very impressed with a translation I saw, so here's the raw Japanese for what it's worth. :]]]
Since I am no poetic by any means, I don't know if my interpretation would accurately construe what it's deep meaning is.

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 9:33 pm

This is really an interesting topic!
I don't know about Japanese poetry at all, I'm looking forward reading more about it.

[.Suspiria.]

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