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Here is the text of the Iroha poem, sided with a possible translation (mine):

色は匂えど Iro wa nioedo | Colors, although bright,  
散りぬるを Chirinuru wo | Will scatter.  
我が世誰ぞ Wa ga yo tare zo | In my world, nobody  
常ならぬ Tsune naranu | Is eternal.  
有為の奥山 Ui no okuyama | The remote mountains of the vicissitudes of life  
今日超えて Kyou koete | [I'm] crossing today,  
浅き夢見じ Asaki yume miji | Not dreaming shallow dreams,  
酔いもせず Ei mo sezu | [And] not getting/being drunk.

My questions are:

  1. What does the particle "zo" in l. 3 mean? Should I understand ll. 3-4 as 私（たち）の世には誰も常ならない "In my/our world, no-one is unchanging"?
  2. What verb form is "miji"?
  3. How would you suggest to translate the last line? "Not getting drunk"?

Any comments on my translation are naturally welcome.

[Note to self: "nioedo" ~ "niou keredo", it's an archaic verb form equating to
having a contrastive conjunction after (I believe) a present (or rather non-
past) tense.]
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2021-12-07T23:06:13.130
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grammar translation poetry
A couple linguistic questions about the Iroha poem
* [ぞ](https://www.hello-school.net/haroajapa010030.htm) is an emphasis marker. 誰ぞ常ならむ is 誰が常であろう in modern Japanese. It is essentially a rhetorical question ("Who is eternal?"), but "Nobody is eternal" is a valid translation, too.
  * The last two lines have several possible interpretations, but assuming じ is voiced, it is a [negative volitional auxiliary (~I will not)](https://www.hello-school.net/haroajapa009021.htm). 酔いもせず connects to 浅き夢見じ. A literal translation would be "I will not have a shallow dream, nor will I get drunk/deluded".
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2021-12-08T01:03:14.073
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#I'm neither a monk nor a classical Japanese expert.

色 means the same as in
'[色即是空](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E8%89%B2%E5%8D%B3%E6%98%AF%E7%A9%BA-517754)'
(Everything is Nothing). So the first two lines mean roughly 'Everything has
perfume, but will be gone'.

Note that L4 is 常なら **む**. [む](https://footprints-kobun.com/bunpou14/) is a
classical auxiliary verb meaning _will_ (≒ modern う・よう). I have nothing
further to add to naruto's answer.

Regarding the last two lines, there seems to be [a
controversy](https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1033674560)
if it is 見し or 見. I always thought 見し due to a [manga adaptation of _The Tale
of Genji_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_Genji_\(manga\)). The
following is about 見し variant.

L5-6 mean 'I go over the mountains of worldly things, today'. 有為 here means
roughly the same as 色 above (things that are made to happen by some other
things; things we see).

し of 見し is [連体形 of き](https://www.hello-school.net/haroajapa009002.htm) which
is an auxiliary verb indicating past tense. So L7-8 mean 'I was dreaming a
shallow dream, without drinking'. As mentioned in the yahoo answer linked
above, I have the impression this fits better (Going over the tangible world,
then the author is saying it was a dream).
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