I need to create an Iroha-style poem using all 46 modern Japanese kana exactly once, including ん but excluding ゐ and ゑ. This is a constraint satisfaction puzzle where each character must appear precisely once while forming something coherent.

I'm considering whether to allow dakuten (voiced marks) like the original Iroha did—treating か and が as the same base kana. Looking at historical examples, the 1903 万朝報 winner included both ゐ and ん but didn't match my constraints, so I'll need to construct something original.

I'm starting with a systematic approach: listing all 46 kana and drafting phrases thematically while checking off each character as I use it. The challenge is balancing poetic meaning with the rigid constraint of using each kana exactly once. I'm working through the character pool systematically, trying to construct lines that flow naturally while using each kana exactly once. I'm testing different word combinations and line structures to reach the target of 46 characters total, checking that I don't repeat any characters as I build each line. I'm working through the remaining characters い お す と な も ろ, trying different word combinations. つひに (遂に, "finally") uses three of them, leaving me with a smaller pool. Now I'm testing combinations like いろ (color), なす (to make), and そめん (to dye), but I'm running into duplicates and struggling to form coherent classical Japanese phrases with what's left. I'm running into conflicts with repeated kana—め appears in both 夢 and 覚め, so I need to stick with just 夢. Let me map out the poem line by line: 「とりなくや」uses と り な く や, then 「ゆめもきえ」adds ゆ め も き え. Next, 「あけのそら」brings in あ け の そ ら for the dawn sky, followed by 「しほみちて」with し ほ み ち て for the tide filling. Finally, 「ふねわたる」gives me ふ ね わ た る for the boat crossing. I'm tracking which kana I've used and what's left to work with for the remaining lines. I'm testing out different word combinations from the remaining kana to complete the poem. "憂ひを捨つ" (sorrow cast away) uses う れ ひ を す つ nicely, leaving me with fifteen kana still to work with. Now I'm trying to weave in words like 風よ (wind) and 浜 (beach) to build toward a meaningful conclusion, though I'm running into constraints with which characters I've already used. I'm running into conflicts with character usage as I try to fill out the remaining syllables. The issue is that some characters like う, ほ, and ら keep getting reused across different words, so I need to either restructure earlier lines to free up characters or find entirely different word combinations for the ending. Let me step back and think about how to partition all 21 remaining syllables into coherent phrases that work together thematically. I'm working through the remaining kana to complete the poem. After placing うれひ and いまを, I have ten kana left to arrange. I'm testing combinations like よろつ (万, meaning ten thousand) and せぬ (しない, won't), then fitting the final characters お さ す into a meaningful phrase.

This approach is getting tangled, so I'm reconsidering the structure entirely. I'm thinking about whether there are existing modern iroha poems with ん that I could adapt or use as a reference point, though most traditional ones either lack ん or use the older 48-character set with ゐ and ゑ. Rather than keep patching this together, I should restart with a clearer vision—maybe building around a coherent scene like dawn breaking and dreams fading.

Now I'm mapping out the 46 kana I need to use and pre-allocating the tricky ones. ん could work at the end of a word like ゆかん (going/shall go), and ぬ fits into classical verb forms. ろ is perfect for the sailing theme—it's the word for an oar, which connects to the nautical imagery. I'm tracking which kana I've already used to avoid duplicates, and I'm starting to draft actual lines, though I keep running into conflicts where a kana I need has already appeared earlier. For line 4, I'm exploring sailing-related words but running into character conflicts. "海へ舟遣れ" works with the available characters う,み,へ,ふ,ね,や,れ. Now for line 5, I need to find words using the remaining characters, and "潮風に" (the salt wind) fits perfectly with し,ほ,か,せ,に, leaving me with eighteen characters still to place. I'm working through possible words using the remaining characters, testing combinations like 「こん」(come) and 「すまん」(won't stay) to complete the poem while respecting the character constraints. I'm recounting the characters used across all five lines to verify my arithmetic — I had 28 used characters, leaving 18 remaining, but my list only shows 17, so I need to find which one I missed in my accounting.

Looking back through the hiragana chart, I see that く was used in line 2, not こ, so こ is actually still available. That brings my remaining list to 18 characters: い お こ さ す た ち つ の ひ ま む も る ろ わ を ん.

Now I'm working through possible words from these remaining characters — 「いのち」(life) uses い の ち, then 「たもつ」(to preserve) uses た も つ, leaving me with 12 characters to work with for the next word.

I'm reconsidering my approach though. Using 「たもつ」might not be the best path forward since it limits my options. Let me try a different segmentation instead — 「わたる」(to cross/traverse) uses わ た る, which opens up more possibilities with the remaining 15 characters. Looking at possible classical negative verbs using the remaining kana, I'm exploring forms like 「もたん」(will not hold), 「すまん」(will not dwell), 「またん」(will not wait), and 「こさん」(will not cross) — each fitting the poetic theme. The challenge is working 「をこさん」(will cross over) into the final phrase while managing the kana constraints, especially since と is already used in line 2, so I might need to reconsider that line to free up characters for a better crossing image. I'm testing a new arrangement: "sky brightens" (6 characters), "bird's song" (5 characters), and "dream fades" (5 characters), which uses 16 characters total and leaves 30 remaining from the 46-character set. Now I need to fill the remaining lines with the unused characters, starting with a fourth line about a harbor or boat. I'm exploring different ways to segment the remaining characters into meaningful classical phrases. I'm testing combinations like "幸を摘む" (gathering happiness) using さ、ち、を、つ、む, which leaves い、こ、す、の、ま、ん to work with, and I'm considering "残す" (to leave behind) as part of the final phrase. I'm exploring different segmentations to use the awkward remaining letters like ろ, む, and ん. Looking at words with ろ like 「いろ」(color) which uses い and ろ from the pool, and considering む words like 「たわむ」(to bend) with た わ む. The challenge is fitting these into a coherent five-line structure without duplicating characters or using letters already assigned to other lines.

Now I'm trying a completely fresh approach—building the entire poem by allocating kana sets to specific words upfront, treating it like a jigsaw puzzle. I'm working through a word bank with distinct kana for each phrase, mapping out a thematic arc from night to dawn to journey. Testing combinations like 「つきしろく」(moon white) for the opening, then 「よもすから」(all night long) and 「ゆめにみし」(seen in dreams), checking that each line's characters don't overlap with others while maintaining the narrative flow. り,の,こ,え で鳥の声を表現。残り30文字。ゆめむなし (夢空し) で夢の儚さを表現——諸行無常の伝統に合う。残り25文字。舟の表現を探してるけど、いそぐ系は既に使った文字が被ってしまう。

かせまつふね (風待つ舟) で「風を待つ船」という意味——か,せ,ま,つ,ふ,ね の6文字を使う。残り19文字のはずだけど、数え直してみると実際は17文字しか残ってない。全体の使用文字を確認し直す必要がある。

へさきに (舳先に) で へ,さ,き,に の4文字を使って「船の舳先に」という意味を作る。これで残り15文字。

いろいろな候補を試してみてるけど、既に使った文字が含まれてるものばかり引っかかってる。ひ,ほ,も,や,る,れ,ろ,を,い,お,く,す,そ,ち,て,に の15文字で何か作れるか探してる。

おもひれる、ひるすきて、そのやちほこ...どれもうまくいかない。

別の角度から、ち,し,ほ で「血潮」とか、を,ち,こ,ち で「遠近」とか意味のある言葉を探してるけど、既に使った文字が混ざってて詰まってる状態。

最後の部分が特に難しい。むしろ難しい文字から先に確保しよう。を、ん、ぬ、ろ、む、ひ/へ/ほ、ね...こういった使いづらい音を含む言葉を先に決めて、残りを埋めていく方が効率的かもしれない。「かすむ」で霞む、「ふね」で舟、「よはあけぬ」で夜明けぬ...こんな感じで重要な文字を含む言葉を予約していく。 Now I'm checking off the remaining kana from the hiragana set — い, う, く, さ, し, せ, そ, た, ち, つ, て, な, に, ね, ふ, へ, ほ, む, も, る, れ, ろ, ら, わ, ん, and き — that's 26 characters left to place. I'm working through sea-related phrases to fill the remaining lines, considering options like わた (crossing) and うしほ (tide), but running into conflicts with already-used characters and the need to express the concept of crossing water. I'm testing different phrase combinations with the remaining characters, checking each one against the available pool. Most attempts run into duplicates or unavailable characters—like trying to use colors (紫, 染める) that require characters already spent. I'm exploring phrases about boats and clouds, looking for something that works with the constraint of using only い う き く さ せ そ つ て な に ね ふ へ む も る れ ろ.

Now I'm reconsidering the structure entirely. I notice の is already used in line 3 (とりのこえ), which blocks phrases like 浮寝の舟. I'm thinking about swapping out the bird phrase to free up precious characters like と and の, then rebuilding the poem with a different approach—maybe using dawn imagery without the bird reference, and repositioning fixed phrases like 「よはあけぬ」and 「ゆめをおひ」to work around the constraints.

I'm testing a new version where I drop を from 「ゆめをおひ」and rewrite it as 「ゆめおひて」instead, which frees up を for another phrase like 「みなとをいで」. But that creates a duplicate て, so I'm working through the character inventory again—checking what's already used against what remains available. I'm realizing the dakuten constraint makes this even trickier—combining marks share the base kana, so I can't use both a plain kana and its dakuten variant. Let me step back and try a different approach: instead of chasing perfect poetic cohesion, I'll partition all 46 kana into grammatically sound phrases, then arrange them into a scene. Starting with simpler classical phrases like "night breaks" and "bell's sound" to lock in key kana, then building around what's left. For line 3, I'm reconsidering the dream imagery — "ゆめも消え" (dream fades) works with five unique characters and avoids duplicates. That brings my used count to 16 characters, leaving 30 remaining including る. Now I'm working on line 4, starting with dawn imagery. I've confirmed all 46 characters are accounted for. With 22 used so far, I have 24 remaining: い,う,お,く,け,こ,す,そ,ち,つ,て,な,ぬ,ひ,ふ,へ,ほ,ま,む,や,れ,ろ,を,ん. Now I'm wrestling with line 5 — the word for "boat" keeps running into conflicts since ね is already locked into line 2, so I'm exploring alternatives like using ふなで (船出) instead to work around the constraint. I found that 出でん (いでん) works with the available kana, and after testing various phrases, 「町をいでん」(I shall leave the town) fits perfectly — it uses ま, ち, を, い, て, ん, all still available, and captures the journey theme nicely. That brings my total to 28 kana used, leaving 18 remaining.

Now I'm working on the closing phrases with what's left. I tested 「けふこそ」(today, surely) — け and ふ are both available and it's a classical form that appears in the Iroha itself, which feels fitting. That would leave 14 kana for the final lines, and I'm exploring combinations like phrases pointing toward distant mountains or far lands to complete the journey narrative. I'm trying different combinations with ひろく (広く) to use up ひ and ろ, leaving me with う,お,す,つ,な,ぬ,へ,ほ,む,や,れ. The ろ character is particularly constraining, so finding words like ひろく that consume it efficiently helps. Now I need to figure out how to use the remaining characters, especially the difficult set of へ,ほ,ぬ together. I'm testing different character combinations to fill the remaining slots, checking which words work without reusing characters already assigned. I'm running into conflicts with ま appearing in multiple candidate words, so I need to either lock it into one word or find alternatives that don't use it. Let me systematically reserve the rare characters—ん for 「いでん」, を as the object marker, ぬ for 「あけぬ」, ね for 「とりのね」, and ろ for either 「ひろく」or 「しろく」—then figure out which remaining words can fill the gaps without overlapping. I'm working through whether to keep 梦 (ゆめ) or use 梅 (うめ) instead, since both compete for the same characters. If I go with 梦, I can use 「ゆめもきえ」which gives me ゆ,め,も,き,え, but then I need to find a different host for にほひ without repeating は. I'm considering 「さくらにほひ」(桜匂ひ) which uses さ,く,ら,に,ほ,ひ — but that brings ら into play, which conflicts with other potential placements like わたらん. I'm settling on using 「いでん」for ん and 「さくら」for ら, then rebuilding with 「よるはあけぬ」(夜は明けぬ) as the opening line to capture よ,る,は,あ,け,ぬ.

Now I'm assembling the full version and checking my character inventory — I've used 27 characters across the first five lines, leaving 19 remaining from the full 46-character set. I'm verifying which characters are still available and which ones still need homes in the final line.

I found a promising phrase: うちをいでん (home/house + を + go out + ん) — this uses six characters that are all still available. That leaves me with thirteen characters to work with for the remaining phrases, and I'm carefully tracking which ones I've already placed to avoid duplicates. Trying 「おろし」(mountain wind) uses お,ろ,し, leaving こ,せ,そ,な,ふ,み — then 「こそ」takes こ,そ, and I'm stuck with せ,な,ふ,み for a four-character phrase that doesn't quite work. Exploring 「なみ」(wave) with な,み leaves a stubborn set with ろ that keeps resisting combinations. The ろ character keeps appearing in potential words like しろ or ころ, but none of them fit cleanly into the remaining pool without breaking the constraint.

Wait — I found it: 「おそれなし」(no fear) uses お,そ,れ,な,し perfectly, leaving こ,せ,た,つ,ふ,み,ろ,わ. Then 「わたつみ」(the sea god) takes わ,た,つ,み, which leaves just こ,せ,ふ,ろ. The last four characters are stubborn — I could try 「わたつみこせ」(cross the sea!) as an imperative phrase using こ,せ, but that leaves ふ,ろ, which would just be 風呂 (bathhouse), which doesn't work poetically. I need to find a way to embed ふ and ろ back into the earlier phrases instead. I'm testing different word combinations from the remaining characters, checking for thematic coherence and valid Japanese words—trying pairs like 蝉 (cicada) but running into seasonal conflicts with cherry blossoms, then exploring nouns like 綱 (rope) and 背子 (beloved) alongside verb forms like 越す and 降ろす, though some characters keep getting blocked by earlier selections. I need to find a phrase that works for ほ and ふ together — 「きくにほふ」(chrysanthemum scent) uses き,く,に,ほ,ふ, which covers both letters, though it shifts the seasonal tone slightly. Alternatively, 「そでにほふ」(sleeve fragrance) with そ,て,に,ほ,ふ could work if て isn't reserved elsewhere now that ん is handled by わたらん.

For ふ specifically, I'm also considering 「ほしきえて」(stars fade) using ほ,し,き,え,て — that captures the dawn imagery perfectly. But then ふ needs its own phrase, and options like 「けふ」(today) or 「ふね」(boat) create conflicts with other reserved characters or existing lines. な is needed for both うみ and とりのうた, so I'm weighing whether to use it for the bird song phrase or save it for the sea reference. Let me check what characters are still available after the first three lines — I've used 17 so far, leaving 29 remaining characters to work with.

I'm reconsidering line 4 entirely. Using とりのね instead of とりのうた frees up う and avoids the conflict with わたつみ for the sea reference. But とりのね is only 4 morae, which throws off the rhythm. Adding や to make とりのねや gives me 5 morae and keeps the flow consistent with the 5-5-7 pattern I've established.

Now I'm working through the final lines. Line 5 uses ゆめをおひ (pursuing dreams), line 6 is わたつみへ (to the sea), and I'm stuck on line 7. I need a verb or phrase using only the remaining letters: い,う,こ,さ,す,ち,な,ま,む,も,る,れ,ろ,ん. Most natural verbs either duplicate letters I've already used or don't fit grammatically with what comes before. Trying different combinations with the remaining characters — うまれ (born) uses う, ま, れ, leaving こ, さ, す, ち, な, む to work with. I'm exploring whether いろ (color) could work standalone or if I should focus on other word patterns that fit the remaining pool better. I'm working through which characters can fill the remaining 19-kana pool, testing words like 「ねむり」(sleep) which uses ね, む, り—all available. Now I need to partition these 19 characters into complete words for the final lines, checking that 「とりのね」and similar combinations don't reuse characters already claimed by earlier verses. I'm hitting a wall with the combinatorial search—too many partitions to explore systematically. Let me step back and think about whether there's an existing published 46-character iroha poem I can reference instead of continuing to brute-force this.

I recall there might be modern versions created by hobbyists online, but I can't reliably quote one from memory. Actually, the spirit of the request is to create one myself anyway, so let me commit to a concrete approach: I'll draft a poem around a thematic arc—night fading into dawn, a journey over mountains to the sea, courage and no regrets—and then methodically swap characters to ensure all 46 kana appear exactly once.

I'm pre-assigning the rarer kana to specific phrases to lock them in: ん goes in a phrase about crossing mountains, ぬ in one about daybreak, を as the object particle in that same mountain line, and ろ in a phrase about the sky whitening at dawn. This gives me anchors to build the rest around.

Now I'm working through the remaining rare characters—ね, む, ふ, へ, ほ—testing different word combinations to see which ones avoid conflicts with letters I've already committed elsewhere. For む, I found that 眠り覚め (awakening from sleep) covers both ね and む efficiently. For ふ and へ, 麓へ (toward the mountain base) works well with the journey theme. For ほ, I'm exploring options like にほひ (fragrance) or ほのお (flame), checking each time that the component letters don't duplicate anything already locked in.

I've settled on 「花の匂ひ」(the fragrance of flowers) as my host phrase, which gives me は, な, の, に, ほ, ひ. Now I'm assembling the full poem and hitting a constraint with の—it appears in multiple potential phrases like 花の, 夜明けの, and 鳥の, so I need to pick just one location for it. I'm also trying to place ぬ and ゆ, testing whether 眠り覚めぬ (awoke) works for ぬ, and hunting for a ゆ word that doesn't conflict with く or め.

I've found 「色匂ふ」(color fragrant)—い, ろ, に, ほ, ふ—which is a brilliant callback to the Iroha poem's opening, and it handles both ろ and ふ while reusing に and ほ. Now I'm rebuilding the assembly with 「明けゆく空」(the brightening sky) for あ, け, ゆ, く, そ, ら, which lets me drop the conflicting しろく and repurpose ろ into the color phrase instead. Let me recount the kana I've used so far to verify what's left. I've got 17 characters accounted for, which means 29 remain from the full 46-character hiragana set. Scanning through systematically, I'm finding 27 in my remaining list, so I'm missing 2 somewhere in my count.

Wait—I see the issue now. I missed ふ in my earlier check; it's not actually been used yet. And へ is also still available. So my remaining pool of 29 is correct: う, え, お, か, き, こ, さ, し, す, せ, つ, と, ぬ, ね, ふ, へ, ま, み, む, め, も, や, よ, り, る, れ, わ, を, ん.

Now I'm back on track with ふね (boat/ship) since both ふ and ね are available. For the next line, I'm trying to work in a bird reference, but the obvious choices like とりのうた and とりなくや both use characters I've already committed. I'm exploring alternatives like むかし (long ago) paired with もとむ (to seek), though I'm running into conflicts with characters that are already spoken for.

Then I land on かもめ (seagull)—that's か, も, め, all available—which could work beautifully as a seabird image. But it doesn't include む, so I need to find another home for that character. むれ (flock) solves it: かもめむれ gives me the image of a flock of gulls. The challenge now is that め appears in both かもめ and in potential wake-words like めさむ, so I have to choose which line gets that character. I'm deciding to use かもめむれ for the seabird imagery and skip the wake-word entirely since I don't need it for the poem's arc.

For the final line, I'm settling on うみをこえん (to cross the sea)—う, み, を, こ, え, ん—which gives me a strong closing image of a sea journey. That leaves や and ま still needing homes, though や can work as a particle and ま might fit into words like まつ (to wait or pine). I see that い is already used from the earlier line, which blocks several boat-related phrases. Looking at what's available, I can construct "沖へ舟遣り" (send the boat to the open sea) using the remaining characters, which gives me a strong verb form that works with the final line about crossing the sea. Let me verify the character count and what's left in the pool. I'm exploring whether to keep "sea crossing" as the final phrase or switch to "rapids crossing" to free up characters. If I go with the sea version, I have eleven characters left to work with, but I'm running into conflicts—many potential phrases either reuse characters I've already committed or require characters that are already taken. I'm testing combinations like island references and classical verb forms, but they keep hitting dead ends with duplicate characters or unavailable kana. Exploring classical Japanese poetry constraints with specific characters—trying combinations like 幣(ぬさ) for travel safety offerings, testing verb forms and particles to fit the remaining character set. Branching into different approaches: one path struggling with grammar requirements, another attempting to build phrases around specific character combinations like 「せをこえん」 and exploring maritime imagery with 「うみ」. I'm realizing the issue: those awkward kana cluster at the end because I haven't anchored them early enough. Let me try placing the difficult characters—ぬ, ね, ろ, む, を, ん, へ, ふ, ほ, や, よ, わ—into strong classical phrases upfront, then save the flexible common kana for the tail end. I'm looking at traditional iroha variants and fixed expressions like "よはあけぬ" and "とりのねに" to lock down these problem characters, then work backward from there to construct something coherent. I found 「やみはあけぬ」(the darkness has lifted) — that's perfect, it uses や and consumes six characters. Now I'm left with twenty-nine kana to work with. I'm struggling with the bird line though; every attempt to build something with とりのね either reuses characters I've already committed or creates awkward phrasing, and や is already locked into the darkness line so I can't use it again.

Let me pivot to a boat instead — 「ふねうかべ」(float a boat) works beautifully and uses five characters including ふ, ね, う, か, and へ. That leaves me with twenty-four kana remaining. I'm adding 「ゆめもとむ」(seek the dream) next, which gives me five more characters and leaves fourteen kana still to place. For the dawn imagery, 「ほしきえて」(stars fade away) captures that transition moment perfectly and uses five more characters, bringing me down to just fourteen kana left to work with.

Now I'm struggling to place the remaining characters — く, こ, せ, つ, な, ひ, ま, る, ろ — and I've found 「さちいのり」(praying for fortune) which elegantly uses five of them. That leaves me with only nine kana to account for, and I'm testing combinations like 「まなこ」(eyes) and 「くる」(come) to see if they can fit the remaining constraints, though the combinations aren't forming coherent phrases yet. I found that 「せつなく」(切なく) uses four kana, leaving just ま, る, ろ — but those three won't form a word. I'm trying different substitutions in the earlier phrases to free up or absorb these remaining characters differently. Swapping particles or word endings might help, but each change risks breaking other constraints or creating duplicates.

Now I'm checking the full allocation: the seven phrases total 37 kana, leaving exactly 9 unassigned: く, こ, せ, つ, な, ひ, ま, る, ろ. The poem is actually coming together thematically — darkness, fading stars, a boat, dreams, prayers, fearlessness, crossing the world. I need one more phrase of 9 kana (or split into 4+5) from those remaining characters. I just found 「つるまひ」(鶴舞ひ) — cranes dancing — which uses four of them and fits perfectly as an auspicious omen for the journey. That leaves く, こ, せ, な, ろ to form the final phrase.

I'm also reconsidering whether to swap 「おそれずに」for 「おそれなく」(恐れなく) to free up に and す, which would shift the remaining pool and give me more flexibility with こ and せ. I'm testing another combination with ひる and ころ, which gives me す, せ, つ, ま, に left over — trying words like 待つ (まつ) to narrow it down. Then I'm exploring する and まろ together, which leaves こ, せ, つ, に, ひ, and I realize I can form 切に恋する (せつにこひする) — "loving intensely" — using seven characters, leaving just ま and ろ stranded again.

Now I'm reconsidering おそれずに instead of おそれなく to free up different characters, but that creates a duplicate す problem. I'm trying to place ま and ろ separately by exploring words like 喜び (よろこび) which contains よ, ろ, こ, ひ, potentially solving the ろ placement while keeping the final phrase structure intact. I'm testing different combinations with the remaining characters to complete the poem. I found that "喜び来る" (joy comes) uses six characters and leaves three remaining—つ, な, ま—which perfectly form "真夏" (midsummer). This gives me a complete 46-character poem with zero characters left over, and the final image of midsummer dawn actually works thematically with the earlier lines about darkness and stars. I'm testing different narrative orderings to smooth out the rhythm—moving from summer night's darkness lifting, to stars fading, launching the boat, seeking dreams, praying for fortune, facing fears, crossing rapids, and ending with joy. The 3-6-5-5-5-5-5-6-6 mora pattern doesn't follow classical 7-5 form, but it has its own cadence. I'm also considering whether to swap まなつ with other phrases or explore alternative 3-kana combinations from the remaining characters, though まなつ still feels like the strongest opening.

Now I'm testing whether 「まよひなく」(without hesitation/confusion) works better thematically than おそれずに (without fear), since it avoids repetition and captures the sense of moving forward with clarity rather than just courage. This phrase uses five mora perfectly and leaves me with こ, つ, る, ろ to work with, though those remaining characters are harder to form into something meaningful.

Comparing my options: the version with 「よろこびくる」(joy arrives) and 「まなつ」works cleanly and accounts for all nine characters, whereas trying to use 「まよひなく」leaves awkward residue. I'm settling on the first partition as the stronger choice.

One last thing to verify — the classical grammar of 「やみはあけぬ」where ぬ functions as the perfective ending (the darkness has dawned into light), which is correct for classical Japanese, though the reading could momentarily seem ambiguous with the negative form.

Now I'm arranging the final nine-line sequence with 「よろこびくる」modifying 「まなつ」as a noun phrase at the end — "the midsummer when joy comes" — which creates a nice body-noun ending (体言止め). The rhythm across the lines is somewhat irregular at 6-5-5-5-5-5-6-6-3, but it flows recitably. I'm considering whether to regroup the lines for better pacing.

Let me verify the complete kana count: all 46 characters are accounted for, and I'm checking that each of the 46 distinct kana appears exactly once throughout the poem to ensure the pangram constraint is satisfied. I'm verifying the character coverage—ゐ and ゑ are correctly absent, and ん is present as expected. The dakuten marks (ず, び, べ) follow the traditional iroha convention where voiced and unvoiced variants count as the same character. The poem itself reads as a coherent midsummer dawn voyage: darkness lifting, stars fading, a boat set afloat, seeking dreams, praying for fortune, moving without fear across the shallows toward approaching joy. I'm checking the classical grammar—the verb forms like 明けぬ (darkness has lifted) and the poetic phrase 舟浮かべ (boat set afloat) are consistent with classical Japanese usage, though there's some nuance in whether certain verbs are transitive or intransitive in the classical period. I should present this as a proper iroha poem with the kana verification clearly shown — listing out all 46 characters in gojūon order to demonstrate that each appears exactly once, then provide the poem with its reading and meaning, noting the classical orthographic conventions like ず for す and び for ひ.