いろは歌：Iroha Song

いろは歌

 

日本人は英語のABCを覚えるように日本語の音韻を覚えるのに千年以上「いろは歌」に親しんで来ました。音韻学的配列の「あいうえお」五十音図はそれ以前にあったのですが、こちらの方が仏教の深い意味を含み人生の教訓にもなったからです。

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

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

色は仏教では視覚的形態を意味する rūpa で一切現象を意味します。有為は saṅkhata/saṃskṛta（行：行為：造作：造作物）で、無為は asaṅkhata/asaṃskṛta（不造作：涅槃）を意味します。これは次の無常偈を表すとされ、各行対応するとも言われます：

諸行無常
是生滅法
生滅滅已
寂滅為楽

諸行（一切行為/造作された物）は無常なり。

是れ生滅の法（現象/現象の規則）なり。

生滅滅しおわりぬ、

寂滅（涅槃）をもって楽と為す。

谷川士清著『和訓栞』の「大綱」には、

「いろはは、涅槃経諸行無常の四句の偈を訳して同字なしの長歌によみなし、七字づゝ句ぎりして陀羅尼になずらへぬ。韻字にとがなくてしすと置けるも偈の意成べし」

と述べている。

この様に一日一日を過ごし、恙無く「罪を犯さず生を終える」ことができれば、正に涅槃を実証して極楽の一生であり、自他共に無量寿・光・慈・悲・喜・捨（解放・自由）を享受することになる。

皆共に涅槃・覚醒の道を歩み成就しますように！

 

The Iroha Song

 

For more than a thousand years, Japanese people have been familiar with the Iroha Song as a way of learning the sounds of the Japanese language, much as English speakers learn the ABCs. The phonologically ordered gojūon syllabary—the “a-i-u-e-o” fifty-sound table—had existed earlier, but the Iroha Song became more widely cherished because it contains profound Buddhist meaning and offers guidance for life.

Iroha nihoheto chirinuru wo

Waga yo tare zo tsune naramu

Ui no okuyama kyō koete

Asaki yume miji ei mo sezu

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

Colorful forms, though fragrant, fall.

Who is permanent in my world?

Passing today beyond the deep mountain of formations,

I shall neither dream shallow dreams nor become intoxicated.

In Buddhism, iro (色) means visible form—shiki (色)/rūpa—and, more broadly, represents all phenomena. Ui (有為) corresponds to saṅkhata/saṃskṛta, meaning “formations (actions: karma or formed things” in contrast to mui (無為), asaṅkhata/asaṃskṛta, the “unformed or unconditioned”—Nirvana.

The song is traditionally said to express the following “Gāthā of Impermanence,” with each of its four lines corresponding to one line of the verse:

諸行無常
是生滅法
生滅滅已
寂滅為楽

All formations are impermanent.

They are phenomena of arising and ceasing.

When arising and ceasing have ceased,

serene cessation—Nirvana—is bliss.

The Outline in Tanikawa Kotosuga’s Wakun no Shiori reportedly states:

“The Iroha renders the four-line verse ‘All formations are impermanent’ from the Nirvana Sutra as a long poem without repeating a single character. Divided into phrases of seven characters, it was likened to a dhāraṇī, memory spell. The placement of the rhyming characters toga nakute shisu—‘to die without wrongdoing’—also appears to express the meaning of the gāthā, verse.”

If we live each day in this way and can safely complete our lives—“dying without committing wrongdoing”—we truly realize Nirvana and live a life of Sukhā-vatī (Comfort-ful, identified as Paradise or Pure Land). Then self and others together enjoy immeasurable life, light, friendship, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity—release and freedom.

May we all walk together on the Way of Nirvana/Awakening and bring it to fulfillment!

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