My favorite poem from The Man'yoshu is Dialog of the Destitute. The poet uses several literary devices, such as imagery and irony, to paint an agonizingly painful picture of life of the poor in Japan. The author's desperation to find food and drink is illustrated when he describes how he must "lick black lumps of salt and suck up melted dregs of sake (lines 8-9)." His torn clothes are mere "tattered rags" that are "thin as strips of seaweed (lines 44-45)." These illustrative lines bring the speaker to life for the reader, making it very easy to sympathize with him.
The most poignant line in the entire work comes in the form of irony at the very end of the poem. About midway through the poem, the speaker reminds himself and the reader that at least he was born human so he may have a chance of attaining enlightenment and escaping the cycle of death and rebirth that has landed him in his current state of poverty and despair. Then, in the very last lines of the poem, he laments that he is not a bird, a level that cannot even attain enlightenment as a human can, so that he could at least fly away to escape the cruel world in which he lives.
The most poignant line in the entire work comes in the form of irony at the very end of the poem. About midway through the poem, the speaker reminds himself and the reader that at least he was born human so he may have a chance of attaining enlightenment and escaping the cycle of death and rebirth that has landed him in his current state of poverty and despair. Then, in the very last lines of the poem, he laments that he is not a bird, a level that cannot even attain enlightenment as a human can, so that he could at least fly away to escape the cruel world in which he lives.
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