Anyone fluent in Japanese care to explain why the word "mu" (Joshu's Mu koan) is often distinguished by translators as different from our word "no"?

Often they mention an alternate translation as possibly being "not have" and yet I am unsure what exactly the subtle difference in connotation between "mu" and "no" is, which they are alluding to.

As this is classically a first koan, I assume the definition of "mu" could use a full and precise linguistic analysis, prior to its Satorial Analysis.

Submitted October 06, 2020 at 03:54AM by Mossmaster https://ift.tt/34qfkNH