Island, Sea, and Song The Poetics of Dun Karm Psaila and Eastern Lyric Traditions

This study presents a parallel reading of the Maltese poet Dun Karm Psaila (1871–1961) and two major figures in Eastern lyric traditions: the Japanese haiku poet Masaoka Shiki (1867–1902) and the Korean poet Kim Sowol (1902–1934). Focusing on three interwoven motifs—island, sea, and song—the research explores how these poets, working in distinct cultural contexts, developed poetics shaped by their relationship to water and land. Dun Karm, widely regarded as the national poet of Malta, wrote in Maltese at a time when Italian and English dominated cultural life. His poetry is deeply engaged with the Mediterranean landscape and the limestone island he called home. Shiki, a central figure in modern Japanese poetry, revitalized the haiku and tanka forms, bringing them into the modern era with acute attention to the natural world. Kim Sowol, one of Korea’s most beloved poets, drew on Korean folk song traditions to create poetry of longing and place. Rather than tracing influence or measuring literary status, this study proposes a dialogue centered on shared questions: how does a poet represent the island? how does the sea become a figure for the horizon of identity? how does song carry the sound of home? By placing these three poets side by side, the study contributes to a broader understanding of global poetics and offers a model for engaging with literary traditions from island cultures without reducing them to hierarchical comparisons.