“Iroha”—Japanese poem, Heian period (late 8th through Late 12th Centuries)

I’m continuing my experiments with recapturing emotional and tonal effects in translation (see here and here) with this rendering of the Iroha poem, a Heian-era Japanese pangram (piece of writing containing every item in a writing system—in this case, every kana then in use in Japanese). This is actually not my preferred approach to translation—that hews a little bit closer to word-for-word rather than thought-for-thought or feeling-for-feeling—but it is one that interests me very much, especially when it comes to source material with which I am very familiar.

Since composing an English pangram that adequately translates any particular piece of foreign-language writing is probably impossible, I have gone with another venerable bit of formal wordplay, the acrostic. Acrostics, as well as their somewhat more freewheeling cousin alliteration, have been part of the English poetic tradition since the salad days of Cynewulf and Caedmon; they are currently not usually taken very seriously, but then, neither are pangrams. Cynewulf and Caedmon were religious poets; the Iroha is a religious poem; religion generally is not taken as seriously as it used to be in much of the world; these things happen.

A literal translation appears below my acrostic translation.

Iroha

Although the fragrant colors flourish

Loveliest flowers fade.

People, too, are of this world;

How could we endure?

Across the deep karmic mountains

Boldly we set out today,

Empty of deluded dreams—

Teetotalers we.

Colored flowers are fragrant, but will eventually scatter. Who in our world will exist forever? Karma’s deep mountains—we cross them today, and we shall not have frivolous dreams, nor become intoxicated.

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