Mukai Kyorai

Japanese poet

Mukai Kyorai, original name Mukai Kane-toki, 向井 去来 (1651 - 8 October 1704) was a Japanese haikai poet, and a close disciple of Matsuo Bashō.

'Yes, yes!' I answered,
But someone still knocked
At the snow-mantled gate.

Quotes

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  • The cuckoo sings
    at right angle
    to the lark
    • BW (tr.), in: Faubion Bowers (ed.), The Classic Tradition of Haiku: An Anthology. 2012. p. 29

Quotes about Mukai Kyorai

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  • The late master said: "What will 'a monkey' do here? Tell me how you have come up with the conception of the poem." Kyorai replied: "I was thinking that the speaker, enjoying the bright moonlight, wanders in mountains and fields while reciting poems. At that moment he saw another poet under the cliff." The late master said: "It would add more furyu if you make here comes another companion of the moon' the poet's self-portrait, though this will make it a first-person poem.
    • Peipei Qiu. Basho and the Dao: The Zhuangzi and the Transformation of Haikai. 2005. p. 98
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