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.