A language expressed in ideograms results in a poetry that is more art than music.
--Fosco Maraini. Meeting With Japan. p 255.In our written language we are principally concerned with meaning and pronunciation. The quintessence of language is poetry, which approaches song, music; western poetry is composed essentially to be recited. But a language written ideographically is concerned with three things: meaning, sound, and appearance. When it ascends to poetry it tends to become rather the sister of painting or architecture, the latter being understood as the art of spatial relations. Chinese poetry is written essentially to be seen; it penetrates to the mind by way of the eyes.
Wow. That explains everything to me. Written Western poetry is a continuation of the oral tradition of Homer, "Beowulf", and "El Cid". We write in phonemes because our language is music to our ears. Walt Whitman sings "The Song of Myself".
But Japanese poetry is first of all art, painted with a brush and hung on the wall. No wonder I'm drawn to kanji (I'm a visual, rather than aural, learner). Distinguishing between sounds is difficult for me in any language. Japanese words, especially, all sound the same to me. But show me a kanji, and the meaning seeps into my consciousness through my eyes.
In my last class, sensei used the word "toku ni" (especially), which I didn't remember having heard before. I wrote it down (in romaji), but was having trouble remembering it (as I do with any new combination of sounds). When I got home, I looked it up. The moment I saw that the kanji was the same as in "tokubetsu" (special), I understood. Now that I've seen it, I will be able to hear it.
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens
September 20, 2002
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Japanese poetry is a feast for the eyes.