"If one continues to compose poems of the sort that everyone else considers good, one must remain forever at that ordinary level. On the other hand, when one writes poems whose essence is profound and difficult, others fail to understand them, and this is frustrating."
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As quoted in Conversations with Shotetsu (Shotetsu Monogatari), 1992, Translated by Robert H. Bower
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shotetsu
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Shotetsu
1381 – 1459
Shotetsu (; 1381–1459) was a Japanese poet during the Muromachi period. He is considered to have been the last poet in the courtly waka tradition and a number of his disciples were important in the development of the renga art form, which led to the haiku.
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