Iroha

So recently I dug up my diary and read portions of it. In particular, a sentence from 16/8/2011 stuck in my head: «ipse domum maneo et nipponizo et sinensizo, あめんぼの歌、色は et 坂本龍馬の手紙 vertere conans, inde hymnum sinensem vertens» (I myself stay home and do Japanese and Chinese, trying to translate Amenbo no uta, Iroha, and the letters of Sakamoto Ryouka, and then translating the Chinesee anthem). What even is Amenbo no uta? I had no idea… What even is this? Welp, no idea I was working on that… or on the other things… Iroha? Wait, I know what that is! I was already trying to translate it back then? Well I definitely was unsuccessful, no way I'd have forgotten to put that on the blog if I'd made a poetic translation! So I set out to set it to music and translated it to… some language. I made the decision last weekend. Two days ago, aka on 6/12/21, at 20:16-20:29 I composed the tune. I then translated it:

1. To Italian today, 8/12/21, at 15:58-16:05 - that's the day I wrote the draft of the post; 26/6/22 20:37 watching my video of Japanese+Italian+English I change «I colori fulgidi» to «I color più fulgidi», then to «I color, pur fulgidi,» at 2:23 on 29/6/22, which I undo, but then at 2:24 I change «Chi al mondo etērno / Esser mai potrà?» to the below form;
2. Shortly afterwards to English (16:07-16:10); I gotta say, I expected the task to be exceedingly difficult, but in fact, it was a quick thing – and I started from Italian, which I had originally deemed quite likely to be an impossible translation! And I even semi-accidentally got rhymes into the English! 16/3/24 11:48 I considered «In this world, just who can / Stay eternally?», but preferred to leave the current version to stress the "who| with a strong beat;
3. Then, on 13/12/21 at 17:53-17:57 and 19:53-20:07, to Chinese, with a tweak at the following 0:16;
4. Finally, to Hindi, the first four lines on 13/12/21 at 20:17-20:25, and the rest on 14/12/21 at 0:20-0:28; on 6/8/24 I finally got my corrector to correct this; she corrected शास्वत -> अमर śāsvat' -> amar' at 22:32, छिछले सपने -> उथले सपने chich'le sap'ne -> uth'le sap'ne at 22:40, and छितरायें -> ढलते chitrāyeṅ -> dhal'te, to which I suggested ढलेंगे dhaleṅge and she said no; so that line was left as कहीं धलते kahīṅ dhal'te, or rather dhalǝte for musical reasons; and for those reasons, at 0:13 on 9/8/24, I decided to add हैं haiṅ to the line, first placing it after kahīṅ, then before it; it took a while for her to convince herself that «दुनिया में सब कुछ ही / अमर नहीं हैं», mostly because of the pause after hī due to the line ending there, AFAICT.

Anyway, I give you the Kanji text with modern pronunciation, then the archaic Hiragana with archaic pronunciation informed by this answer, then Italian and English, then Chinese, then Hindi. At post end, the music sheet. The video will come out this same weekend. Let's see the poem! Note: Wikipedia gives the modern form with naran, not naranu. However, I'd rather not have a long syllabic n at the end of a line, and -nai -nu and -n are, AFAICT, synonymous negative endings, so I made this replacement.

色は匂えど 散りぬるを 我が世誰ぞ 常ならぬ 有為の奥山 今日超えて 浅き夢見じ 酔いもせず いろはにほへと ちりヌルを 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 I color più fulgidi Si disperdono. Qui nel mondo, chi potrà Mai eterno star? Della vita i monti or Io scalando vo, Sogni sciocchi far non vo', Né illudermi. 颜色虽说明明照 终于还散布 这世上，有谁会 来不变地住？ 有为的最高山顶 今天来爬上， 浅薄的梦不想做， 幻想也不想！ रंग यद्यपि चमकते हैं कहीं धलते। दुनिया में सब कुछ ही अमर नहीं हैं। ज़िंदगी के कोहों पे आज मैं हूँ चढ़ता, उथले सपने ना चाहता, धोखा ना खाता।

Iro wa nioedo Chirinuru wo Wa ga yo tare zo Tsune naranu Ui no okuyama Kyô koete Asaki yume miji Ê mo sezu Iro fa nifofendo Tirinuru wo Wa nga yo tare nzo Tune naramu Uwi no okuyama Kefu koyete Asaki yume minji Wefi mo senzu Any hue, though glowing bright, Surely fades away. In this world, whoe'er can Stay eternally? Climbing up the heights of life, I walk on today, I will not dream shallow dreams, Nor deluded be! Yánsè suīshuō míngmíng zhào Zhōngyú hái sànbù Zhè shì shàng, yǒu sheí huì Lái bùbiàn de zhù? Yǒuwéi de zuìgāo shāndǐng Jīntiān lái pá shàng, Qiǎnbó de mèng bù xiǎng zuò, Huànxiǎng yě bù xiǎng! Rańg' yadyapî camak'te Haiṅ kahīṅ dhal'te. Duniyā meṅ sab' kuch' hī Amar' nahīṅ haiṅ! Zińdǝgī ke kohoṅ pe Āj' maiṅ hūṃ caṛh'tā, Uth'le sap'ne nā cāh'tā, Dhokhā nā khātā.