Is there a difference between 'hanasu' written 離す versus 放す?


I was looking for the pronunciation of 離す by searching 'let go' on Jdic. I
came across 放す, but not 離す. Is there a difference between the 2?

The example I was looking at was:

> あいつはマイクを握ったが最後、離そうとしないカラオケ狂だ。  
>  He is such karaoke fan that if only he gets his hands on the mike he
> wouldn’t drop it all night.




At the simplest of levels both mean relatively the same thing. However, the
nuance - and thus times you may choose one over the other - is slightly
different. 離す means more to separate from something, where 放す means to release
something (the clearest image is "out into the wild" or "on its own").

For reference, from the Microsoft IME:

>   * 離す → 分離，距離 「二人の仲を離す，つないでいた手を離す」
>   * 放す → 開放，自由 「鳥を放す，ハンドルから手を放す」
>

* * *

As a side note, as a literary technique you can also purposely mis(?)-use
kanji in these cases to convey a slightly different meaning or nuance in
written text. That is, one might write 彼女の手を放した to convey the feeling that he
permanently let her go, with an added feeling that the woman _as an entire
person_ left, the hand simply being the device of expression.

Furthermore, songs and poems may even use non-standard or unusual kanji
entirely to convey ideas, generally accompanied by furigana - one simplest
example being `時間【とき】`. In this example (which would normally be read `じかん`),
the idea of "a long time" or "time passing" is clearly conveyed, as opposed to
a single moment in time.

