Jump to content

Ametsuchi no Uta

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Jakeinc (talk | contribs) at 06:44, 4 July 2018 (Undid revision 848775815 by Jakeinc (talk)). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Ametsuchi no Uta (天地の歌) or Ametsuchi no Kotoba (天地の詞) is a Japanese pangram, authored in the 9th century AD, which is credited as being the oldest perfect pangram in the Japanese language. Its name roughly translates to "Song (or Words) of the Universe".

The text

The text of the pangram written in hiragana (including the now archaic ゐ wi and ゑ we as well as the, also archaic, 𛀁 (ye)):

あめ つち ほし そら
やま かは みね たに
くも きり むろ こけ
ひと いぬ うへ すゑ
ゆわ さる おふせよ
えの𛀁を なれゐて

The text of the pangram written in kanji:

天 地 星 空
山 川 峰 谷
雲 霧 室 苔
人 犬 上 末
硫黄 猿 生ふせよ
榎の枝を 慣れ居て

The text of the pangram written in Hepburn romaji:

Ame tsuchi hoshi sora
Yama kaha mine tani
Kumo kiri muro koke
Hito inu uhe suwe
Yuwa saru ofuseyo
Eno yewo narewite

A rough and necessarily nonsensical English translation:

Heaven, earth, star, sky,
Mountain, river, ridge, valley,
Cloud, fog, mudhouse, moss,
Person, dog, top, end,
Sulfur, monkey, grow!
Hackberry branch! Keep getting more familiar!

See also