Delicate and Fragrant: The Iroha Uta

Delicate and Fragrant

A translation of the Iroha Uta by Koei

Delicate and fragrant now,

In time all blossoms fall.

Each earthly thing, impermanent,

Slips away, both great and small.

Peaks and vales of conditioned things,

Undaunted, cross today!

Resolute and unswayed by

Evanescent dreams.

The Iroha Uta, attributed to Kobo Daishi Kukai, is one of Japan's most famous poems. Renowned for its use of each character of the Japanese hiragana syllabary, for centuries it was used as a way of ordering the characters, similar to the alphabet. Its lines contain a deep reflection on the Buddhist teaching of impermanence. When written in the traditional way, the last characters of each line spell "Toga Nakute Shisu," or, "Dies without sin." This is sometimes interpreted as a reference to Kukai himself, complicating the attribution of the poem to him. It is often sung by pilgrims and devotees of Shingon Buddhism as an offering.