The Iroha Poem

I offer you something I enjoyed today, so that you may do the same, maybe even more so.

The Iroha Poem
'The leaves may shine with colored gloss,
But they will fall, forever lost.
In this false world, what soul, I ask,
May hope in timelessness to last?
Today I cross these mountain depths
With no vain dreams or drunkenness.'

Kūkai (空海) (774–835)

(original)
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　ゑひもせすん