One of the common themes between the Arabic lyric “The Opening” and Good Charlotte’s “The River” is that of followers needing guidance.

In the beginning of the song, the vocalist expresses the journey one takes in the entertainment industry in L.A.  While one’s career may start out beautiful, life will inevitably present challenges.  This is demonstrated in the allusion “walking through the valley of the shadow of death.” Shadow and death, are symbolic for fears and painful emotional states common to the human experience.  After reflecting on his career and realizing how much he’s sinned, the vocalist wants to be “delivered” or saved from his sinful path.

Like the prodigal son, I was out on my own

Now I’m trying to find my way back home

In these two lines, he acknowledges he’s been lost this whole time and needs help finding his way back.

In The Opening, this is presented as follows:

It is You whom we worship

and You whom we ask for help.

Show us the upright way

Again, the follower is asking for guidance in life’s trials and tribulations.  Something interesting to point out is the different effect the pronouns used create.  By using the pronoun “I” in The River, the follower seems to take center stage while God recedes in the background.  In The Opening, “You” (referencing God) comes before “we” establishing a closer dialogue between followers and God, as compared to the song.

As we have seen, The River references the parable of the Prodigal son – the last in a set of three which focuses on redemption. In this parable, the younger of two sons returns home after wasting the inheritance his father gave him.  Instead of turning him away, the father celebrates his younger son’s return with open arms.  This angers the older brother since he has never wronged his father, and yet has never received anything for his devotion.

The way God is described tends to share similarities between Islam and Christianity.  The father represents God the Heavenly Father as he demonstrates his divine love, mercy, and grace.  The father explains to his older son, that he’s celebrating the fact that his brother returned to him, having realized his wrongs.  In the Arabic lyric God is also described as merciful, compassionate, and the authority on judgment day.

If the repetition of merciful and compassionate are meant to stress these two qualities, I am somewhat confused as to how The Opening’s God would show followers the upright way to everlasting life:

Show us the upright way:

the way of those whom You have favored,

not of those with whom You have been angry

and those who have gone astray.

The “upright” way seems rigid because it exclusively asks for those who God has favored.  While it could have stopped there, it didn’t.  The sura specifically excludes the way of those who’ve angered him or who’ve gone astray as upright.  It makes it seem that the Prodigal Son would probably be denied eternal life under this God, even though he is just as merciful and compassionate.

After reading the four poems, the one that stood out to me the most was the poem From The Manyoshu. The reason being that it’s a poem that is revolved around the concept of love. When it comes to the discussion of love and romanticism, in a way it has always interested me. Love, in my opinion, is such a big word and most importantly a big feeling that most people don’t know how to explain at times, which I find fascinating. Personally, I’m guilty of this because I’ve told people that I’ve loved them, but in reality, I never actually understood what love is or if I even felt it towards them. What intrigued me the most was how throughout this poem he manages to express his love by comparing it to things in nature.

With this said, love in this poem isn’t shown on a positive note but in a sad way. It demonstrates a love story that ended with people hurt because of the distance between them. In the poem, we can immediately see that he loves his wife especially when it comes to his words. He just proves how much he cares about her and the regret that he feels for leaving. For example, when he says ” Away I have come, parting from her…My heart aches within me…My wife waving her sleeve to me…But the sleeves of my garment are wetted through with tears.” (Lines 13-30) This just shows the pain that he’s going through because he’s leaving his wife behind that he even shows emotion because he begins to cry. I find this interesting because it goes against that famous saying that “Real men don’t cry” which in my opinion just shows how strong the power of love can be that it can break the manliness of man.

Although the other poems were interesting I felt that the song Right My Wrongs by Bryson Tiller related to this poem a lot more. This song is a love song as well, but it revolves around cheating and asking for forgiveness. Throughout the song, it’s clear that he talks about the multiple amounts of times that he’s cheated on his girlfriend and how he regrets doing so. With this said, he realizes how his wrong actions have caused him to lose someone who actually cared for him and how he wants her back for good. Which is why he has a repetitive chorus saying “Right my wrongs” because he wants to make things right and be faithful towards her and show her the love that she deserves. In this song, he also states “I’ve gotta right my wrongs, with you is where I belong, you’ve been down from the go, recognition is what you want, and it’s something that I should know.” This just shows the regret that he’s feeling for being a cheater and a liar and how he’ll do anything to get her back.

This song relates to the poem because it shows regret and the desire to have your loved one back. Both of these examples show regret because in the poem the husband regrets leaving his wife behind and being away from her and in the song Bryson Tiller realizes regrets cheating. It also shows regret because you can tell that both the husband and Bryson are miserable without their significant other’s presence. Both examples also show how they want their loved one back because in the poem he regrets not spending so much time with his wife and even cries about it and in the song, it shows that Bryson wants his girlfriend back because he promises many things to convince her to give him another chance. The only thing that is different between these two examples is that in the poem the couple, in my opinion, are still together they’re just far away from each other and it just shows how much he misses his wife. And in the song, Bryson isn’t with her and he actually did something significantly wrong which was cheating on her and he’s basically on his knees asking for another chance.

Keats’ To Autumn captures the beauty of the autumn through Keats’ eyes who gives the poem a classical touch that goes a long way in establishing the authenticity of the poem. Sticking to the traditional styles of poetry, Keats uses iambic pentameters to display the structure and style that is synonymous with the typical romantic poems. Looking at the landscape that is described by Keats, it’s easy to realize a typical rural English countryside. As a romantic poet, he uses nature as a tool for the promotion of his ideas. Several similarities and differences can be singled out from the two poems. First off is the fact that both poems focus on autumn, though to a varying degree, for Hughes, the autumn is given a negative connotation while Keats offers a more positive tone in his description, an element that can be associated with his romanticism context. For Hughes, the first line of the poem not only repeats the title of the pome but also conveys the intended message of the cycle of seasons. In other words, the reader is able to connect the progression of seasons from summer to autumn. He uses strong words such as wrung and plucked, indicating the seasonal transition to invoke strong imagery within the reader’s mind. This is proven in the quotation: “There came a day that caught the summer, Wrung its neck, Plucked it…..”

When compared to Keats’ “To Autumn” a striking difference can be found in the use of a sweeter and more appealing language, where Keats uses a more mellow voice in describing the same transition. For example; “Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;, Conspiring with him how to load and bless, With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run.” Additionally, both poems utilize personification as a way of creating an illusion with the changing seasons effectively. For Hughes, an example can be found in: “And what shall I do with the sun?, The day said, the day said. Roll him away till he´s cold and small’” and Keats example being; “And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; to swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells.”

While Keats’ poem offers the reader a more subtle, seamless and appealing transition from summer to autumn, for Hughes, the story of autumn can only be told through the violent events that indicate the death of summer. Assonance is another major similarity that springs up from both poems. Both poets utilize this style at the very end of each line in their poems, such as Hughes’; “Stuff them with apple and blackberry pie They´ll love me then till the day they die”, and in Keats’ poem: “And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease.” The beauty of autumn can still be appreciated in both poems, though with differing perspectives influenced by the context and setting the writers chose.

Link:

http://a-poem-a-day-project.blogspot.co.ke/2015/09/there-came-day-and-his-name-was-autumn.html

To Autumn is a lyrical poem written in the Romantic ages by English poet, Keats. Spring Prospect was written by Tu Fu around the year 760 A.D. The two lyrical poems, To Autumn and Spring Prospect both use nature, specifically the seasons, as a lens of viewing, responding to, and experiencing the challenges faced.

In terms of these poem’s forms, because the Chinese “share the same homogenous and unbroken intellectual tradition and therefore understand the same references, it becomes possible to say something that will be generally understood without saying it” (introduction), Spring Prospect is much shorter in length and form, using only 8 lines. The latter part of this quote really resonated with me as a break-through in understanding how the Chinese works of literature are short yet powerful, concise yet profound.

In contrast, “To Autumn” is written in three, eleven line stanzas. It is a longer piece, written with detail and imagery. “in Western literature, poetry is primarily perceived as imaginative fiction”, as opposed to it being culturally understood, without having to blatantly express it.

In my opinion, both these poems have a sort of ambiguous vibe. In Spring Prospect, the subject or the speaker is unknown. In lines 3 and 4, it mentions “feeling the times, flowers draw tears, hating separation, birds alarm the heart.” It makes us question, is the speaker observing this happening, or is he the one “feeling” and “hating”. The authors leaves it to our own interpretation. Similar to the poem, To Autumn, we are left with a sense of ambiguity on who exactly Keats is referring to when he speaks about “conspiring with him” in line 3.

I found several common themes between these two beautifully written pieces. First, the evidently expressed approaches to the natural world. Spring Prospect instills a feeling of fear and sadness: “flowers draw tears, hating separation” (line 3) In To Autumn, nature (or the season of Autumn) was painted in a very positive light, for most of the poem at least. The speaker describes the endless fruits, blooming flowers and magnificent scenery. Both the poems depict the quiet observation and subtle appreciate for nature, truly referring to G-d.

In To Autumn, Keats essentially deifies the season of Autumn. While I was reading this poem, it reminded me of some sort of prayer, as if this was his way of connecting to G-d. In the first two lines of the Spring Prospect, Tu Fu describes “the nation shattered, hills and streams remain; The city in spring, grass and trees deep;” separating the natural from the unnatural. I think he is alluding to link that divides humanity to nature or the divine. I interpreted this poem as him telling the reader that we are not in control of what the divine does, our nation can be shattered while the hills and streams stay the same, and that we may never understand why.

Similarly, in To Automn, I believe the author is having a revelation about G-d and the cycle of life. The first stanza speaks about fruitfulness, growth and ripening of nature. The second section discusses the harvesting, the labor that goes into growing this beautiful image he paints. At the end of this passage, he writes “Thou watches the last oozings hours by hours”, ultimately referring to the winter approaching. This part of the poem becomes melancholy. The third paragraph speaks about the decline, he is awaiting as Autumn slowly transitions into the desolation of winter, “sinking as the light wind lives or dies.” This cycle is the cycle of life: we are born (we sprout like flowers), we live (harvest) and we die (ultimate decline). It is told with a sense of inevitable loss, something that is bound to happen and out of our control, just like Spring prospect described. So although he is anticipating winter’s approach, the speaker is hopeful, appreciative, and cherishes the experiences of loss in a meaningful way, he learned from experience. That period of harvesting was part of that seasonal cycle, and it softened the idea of a grand tragedy. It is hopeful- knowing that spring will come again and accepting of the fact that it is in the control of G-d, and not humanity, just like Springs Prospect.

When comparing the two texts, Keats’ “To Autumn” and an excerpt from “The Manyoshu” I found that both talk about the season of autumn however, each describing the season differently. Keats never says autumn but instead, gives detailed descriptions of the season. In the lines, “Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless”(2,3) Keats gives human actions to the season and the sun.

While in the lyrics by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, he associates the time of the autumn as departing with the place he love and the person he loves. In the last five lines it seems that Hitomaro wants the changing of seasons to stop. This makes me wonder if he has an obligation to go somewhere during this time and leave his wife. Maybe to go to war for in the lines, “My black steed galloping fast”(21,22) there is an urgency.

Keats gives autumn beautiful aspects while Hitomaro associates autumn with sadness. As autumn appears Hitomaro’s strength weakens as though his power comes from spring which to me, relates to how Keats conspires with the sun to take out spring and give power to autumn. Can Hitomaro be the sun and his wife spring? He associates his wife with many characteristics of spring therefore, Keats autumn may have conspired with Hitamoro and that is why he left his wife(spring) in her dwelling place till he returns for her.

I will be comparing and contrasting the Chinese Lyric by Yu Fu and the Japanese Lyric by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro. I will begin by discussing the similarities between the two poems. The Chinese Lyric poetry is about a nomad who has traveled far from home as it states in line 4 that, “hating separation, birds alarm the heart.” This quotation speaks to the fact that this wanderer might not enjoy his separation from home, but nature sooths his thoughts. As such in the Japanese Lyric poetry, we also have a traveler who is far from home, and his only comfort is nature. In lines 1-3 it says, “In the sea of Iwami, By the cape of Kara, There amid the stones under sea.” Once again, we have someone on the road, in this case by sea. As we as delve deeper into the poem’s analysis, we notice the motif of love. In the Chinese poem on line 6 it says, “a letter from home worth ten thousand in gold–”. This person has been gone for 3 months, as stated in the line before, “Beacon fires three months running”. During this time interval, he has not had contact with his family. Once he does, pure an utter joy is brought to him, as the letter is priceless. We know that the letter is priceless because it says it is worth “ten thousand in gold”. This line is also interesting because people usually say a picture is worth a thousand words, but here a letter is actually worth more than an image by way of the transitive property.

Here is where I’d like to draw my last similarity, as well as transitioning into the contrasts of the two poems. In the Japanese poem it is apparent that our nomad misses home as it says in lines 9-15, “My wife whom I love with a love Deep as the miru-growing ocean. But few are the nights We two have lain together. Away I have come, parting from her Even as the creeping vines do part. My heart aches within me;” I will start with the similarity. As aforementioned in the Chinese lyric, there is the concept of love, and here too there is the very same notion as it says that he misses his wife very much and that his heart is aching for her. With this similarity also comes contrast. The Chinese Lyric poem is much more ambiguous as to whom the traveler loves, while in the Japanese one it is very apparent who this person is, and that is his wife. Another contrast that I would like to point out is why the two characters left their inhabitance. In the Chinese lyric, it seems as though the person is fleeting for his life as it states in the first line, “The nation shattered” while in the Japanese Lyric poem it says in lines 27-28 that, “Coursing down the western sky. I thought myself a strong man.” I like to interpret this as the man who is moving west, possibly to the Americas or Europe from Japan. I believe the reason he is doing this is to make a living in order to send money back to his family. He sees it as an obligation to make a living for a wife he left behind, as it talks about him being a strong man. Not strong in the sense of the physical, rather in the sense of emotion.

The two poems that I chose for the assignment were Tu Fu’s “Spring Prospect” and Kakinomoto no Hitomaro’s “From the Manyoshu.” There were quite a few comparisons between these two poems starting with both poets depicting their setting very vividly to place the audience in their respective locations. Tu Fu places us in a war torn location by with a very strong opening line (line 1) depicting his surroundings as being “shattered” by war and leaving only the barebones of nature left with only “hills and streams” remaining. Even though Kakinomoto no Hitomaro’s location is not being torn apart by war, he also depicts his surroundings with vivid imagery at the very beginning of his poem (lines 1-6). His first six lines announces to the audience where his home is, which is a very coastal city. I also noticed that both authors used metaphors in their poems. Tu Fu uses his metaphor in lines two and three of “Spring Prospect” stating that the grass and trees are “feeling the times” and that the “flowers draw tears.” I interpreted this as Tu Fu comparing the elements of nature with the people of China during his time who had to live through the civil war. The people were getting tired of the conflict and also crying because of the suffering that it brought. Kakinomoto no Hitomaro compares his wife to a “swaying sea-tangle” and the “miru-growing ocean” in lines 7 to 12 of “From the Manyoshu.” He wants to audience to know that his wife was very important to him and had a timid personality, but she was also a very deep person with multiple layers. Both of these authors were emotionally troubled by an event in their lives with Tu Fu being trapped by the civil war in China and Kakinomoto no Hitomaro leaving his wife to embark on a journey.

One important difference that I noted between the two poems was the point of view they were told in. Tu Fu told his poem in third person perspective and it took me a few reads to finally realize that he was the person observing all of the surroundings around him. Kakinomoto no Hitomaro tells his poem in a first person perspective, which instantly lets the audience know that he is telling his story of leaving his wife and how he will miss her. Another distinct different I want to point out between the poems is that Kakinomoto no Hitomaro uses proper nouns to name the locations he is describing in his poem. Examples of this are in his first two lines of the poem where he lets us know he is near the Iwami Sea and the Kara Cape. Tu Fu doesn’t use any proper nouns to describe his location, and if I didn’t know the name of the author or didn’t read the introduction, this could’ve been a location outside of China. These two poems were very similar in certain ways, but there were certain distinctions in their form and content.

Romanticism in both Tu Fu’s poem and in The Koran tell a story that directly portray images of what is serene in the world versus what is the destructive enemy. Romanticism in both of these works are able to tell us what is “good” versus what is “evil,” by looking toward nature for answers. Both works are in search of attaining peace from the world in its original state, not from something that emerged from humans on Earth that altered it. In Tu Fu’s work, The Spring Prospect, “The nation shattered, hills and streams remain,”(1) paints the picture of a world crafted by mankind that couldn’t stay permanent–an industrial world that interrupts land that is owned by mother nature. The only thing that can withstand all of human corruption is nature–the only thing that is truly meant to be here. After everything is destroyed, nature still remains, as the broken city is described as, “The city in spring grass and trees deep.”(2) It is as if the world, when it is stripped to its purest form, is the only form that will be permanent. The world is meant to be in its absolute God given state, and anything that tries to interfere will hurt nature, but still leave nature as the only permanently existing thing. Although this may not be Tu Fu’s predominant point, the point about nature’s superiority over the corruption of man relates heavily to The Opening [of the Koran]. This Arabic lyric, also a culturally centered poem, opens this holy book into the talk of how mankind is capable of nothing positive without God, the creator and origin of humanity. Muhammad begs, from the point of view of Muslims, that, “It is You whom we worship and You whom we ask for help,” (5-6) as if humans are incapable of finding the right path without the creator of this divine world that humans are living in. It is as if humanity and mankind are too vulnerable to deal with life that God has all the answers to–because God is the original creator of everything. Clearly, in Tu Fu’s work and The Koran, the way the Earth was created is the most superior form of the world. Nothing else that humans can alter the Earth with will be able to withstand life’s shackles by itself, and the original form of the world will always be what humans and nature are finding themselves longing to go back to. In Tu Fu’s work, untouched nature was the original form of the world, and in The Koran, the creator of the world is begged to help the vulnerable humans. No matter what humans do, they are constantly seeking for answers from what was there before them. Muhammed asks of God, “Show us the upright way: the way of those whom You have favored, not of those with whom You have been angry and those who have gone astray.” (7-10) Clearly, the ones who have gone astray are humans that are making their own rules. They are the ones who will suffer, because that is not the way life was meant to be lived. Life was meant to be lived in a way that nature was left untouched, and the way that God, the creator, left created.

The ability of expressing oneself has been a part of human culture for many years. People have always found ways of clarifying how they feel to the people around them- especially during the romantic era. Interestingly enough, the way in which people went about expressing themselves has differed based on the time period, as well as where they lived.

When comparing the Chinese lyrics to the Arab lyrics, or Koran, we see some of the differences in the style of expression. As the introduction to the poem suggests, the poem titled “The Opening” was written as a praise for God and was written my Mohammed. As such, the text is very broad, and serves as an avenue for people of the Muslim faith to be able to praise God from many different approaches and not as a means of being specific. We see this level of broadness from the words used. The poem constantly refers to God, and while it showers God with praises, it does not provide any specific detail of as to what they are praising their master for.

Much to the contrary, the Chinese form is very specific and direct. The introduction to the text introduces us to the uniqueness of each poem from that time period. In the Chinese culture, scholars would write these poems on their own as a sign of grace. They would be expected to submit their praise when being hosted and cared for. In addition, writers would use these poems as an opportunity to express their political beliefs in a very clear and concise form. For instance, in the poem titled “Spring Prospect” by Tu Fu, we are exposed to his belief of the troubling state of his city with a sense of directness by use of the words: separation, favored and angry. He does not use broad terms as in the Koran which allows for the reader to have a direct understanding of what he is referring to.

Additionally, another notable difference between the Chinese poem and the Muslim verse is who the intended audience is. As part of being written by Mohammed and simply serving as a channel of communicating with God, the paragraphs, or suras connect man and God. On the other hand, when looking at Tu Fu’s work, he is clearly speaking to other human beings. This difference in who they are talking to is very informative with regards to the culture. Both groups of people seem interested in expressing themselves, however the Muslim people look towards God to express themselves, while the Chinese people look to one another. In doing so, we see that the Muslim’s believe in God as being the one who is in control of the lives of humans, while the Chinese culture looks to find change in the actions and beliefs of other people.

Lyric has always played a big part of literature all over a world. Basically, lyrics are formed in different ways among different countries and cultures. However, there are always something in common. Lyric would commonly have meter or rhythm to achieve the fluency. Besides, usually, it’s a way to express the mood and emotion either directly or indirectly. Thus, by tracing the writer’s emotion, we can find something beneath the lyric. This time, I will compare to lyrics, find what’s common and what’s common. One lyric, Spring Prospect, is from Chinese poet Tu Fu. The other one is from Japanese poet Kakinomoto no Hitomaro. I am a Chinese who knows a few Japanese. Hence, I will take the advantage of my Asian background to analyze those two great lyrics. One thing I want to claim is the Spring Prospect is not translated very well. Despite it’s very accurate but it lost lots of verse compare to the original one.

The Spring Prospect was written when Tu Fu was suffering from the collapse of his life. His political ambition has nowhere to place and the country he loved was rapidly going downhill. He wrote the lyric to express his sadness. At the first line, he wrote The nation shattered, hills and streams remain addressed the mood of that time. Then he wrote even though is spring time but the surroundings are a mess. It’s parallel to the first line. At the great depression, no one could take care of the beauty that it should be.  Then he used flowers draw tears and birds alarm the hearts to address his depress and anxiety. Same as last two lines, rather than directly address that he is too old and too much stressed, he said his hair was white and too few to hairpin up. (In ancient China, both male and female would have long hair)

The next lyric is in a much easier mood, Japanese poet Kakinomoto no Hitomaro wrote a song of love. Kakinomoto first described the surroundings to create quite, silence mood. The great novelist Natsume Soseki had said, Japanese wouldn’t directly say “I love u”, instead they may say “It’s beautifully the moon tonight”. Kakinomoto wrote

Now as the moon, sailing through the cloud rift

Above the mountain of Yakami,

Disappears, leaving me full of regret,

So vanishes my love out of sight;

This part expresses his love in a very art way which he used in many places.

Comparing these two lyrics, they both have more context than literal wording. When Tu Fu said a letter from home worth ten thousand in gold, it means both the difficulty of delivery due to the mess and his nostalgia. Based on the same culture background, these to lyric technology highly same.