David says, "Issa packs many of his haiku with allusions to literary classics and folklore. He makes references to Chinese sources, Japanese sources, and to myriad folktales. Such allusions flow naturally from Issa looking inward and outward at the same time. Earlier cultural narratives inform his consciousness just as much as what his eyes are seeing or his ears are hearing. Haiku comes to life in the interval between the past and now."
David G. Lanoue is a professor of English at Xavier University of Louisiana. He is a co-founder of the New Orleans Haiku Society, an associate member of the Haiku Foundation, and the president of the Haiku Society of America. His books include translations, criticism, and a series of “haiku novels.” He maintains The Haiku of Kobayashi Issa website, for which he has translated 10,000 of Issa’s haiku.