Across the Sea Lyrics Meaning

This song was written after the Rivers went back to Harvard following the success of the Blue Album. He got a fan letter from a Japanese girl (Rivers has a big Asian fetish). Also, the theme of the album deals with River's identification with US sailor Lt. Pinkerton in the Puccini opera Madame Butterfly. In the play, Pinkerton falls in love with a young Japanese girl (Cio Cio San - "Butterfly"), gets illegitimately married, goes back to the states and marries another woman, even though Butterfly is with Pinkerton's child. Pinkerton still does nothing about it, resulting in Butterfly's suicide.

Rivers was depressed at the time of the Pinkerton and SFTBH writings, so he comes off very weak and callow. The whole album deals with the same theme throughout.

In short, this song is not about the Japanese fan who sent him the letter, but his feeling of depression, apathy, and ineptitiude (he was extremely shy, pretty much up until Make Believe and his marriage to Kyoto Ito).