Matsuo Basho Quotes

For this lovely bowl let us arrange these flowers since there is no rice.

Winter solitude- in a world of one colour the sound of the wind.

Along my journey / through this transitory world, / new year's housecleaning.

Harvest moon: around the pond I wander and the night is gone.

Old pond, leap-splash - a frog.

Ballet in the air... Twin butterflies until, twice white They Meet, they mate

Seek on high bare trails Sky-reflecting violets... Mountain-top jewels

Summer grasses — all that remains of great soldiers' imperial dreams.

I hope to have gathered To repay your kindness The willow leaves Scattered in the garden.

Around existence twine, (Oh, bridge that hangs across the gorge!) ropes of twisted vine.

I am one who eats breakfast gazing at morning glories.

The old pond, ah! A frog jumps in: The water's sound.

When I speak My lips feel cold - The autumn wind.

Breaking the silence Of an ancient pond, A frog jumped into water - A deep resonance.

On a bare branch a crow is perched - autumn evening

O cricket from your cherry cry No one would ever guess How quickly you must die.

Traveler's heart. Never settled long in one place. Like a portable fire.

There came a day when the clouds drifting along with the wind aroused a wanderlust in me, and I set off on a journey to roam along the seashores

Now the swinging bridge Is quieted with creepers ... Like our tendrilled life.

Just washed, How chill The white leeks!

Farewell, my old fan. / Having scribbled on it, / What could I do but tear it / At the end of summer?

Poverty's child - he starts to grind the rice, and gazes at the moon.

Winter garden, the moon thinned to a thread, insects singing.

Collecting all The rains of May The swift Mogami River.

The fact that Saigyo composed a poem that begins, "I shall be unhappy without loneliness," shows that he made loneliness his master.

I felt quite at home, / As if it were mine sleeping lazily / In this house of fresh air.

This autumn- why am I growing old? bird disappearing among clouds.

Year's end, all corners of this floating world, swept.

Spring rain conveyed under the trees in drops.

Fresh spring! / The world is only Nine days old - / These fields and mountains!

Twilight whippoorwill... Whistle on, sweet deepener Of dark loneliness

Old dark sleepy pool... Quick unexpected frog Goes plop! Watersplash!

The sea darkens And a wild duck s call Is faintly white.

Not to think of yourself / as someone who did not count -- / Festival of the Souls.

At the ancient pond the frog plunges into the sound of water

If I had the knack I'd sing like Cherry flakes falling

A thicket of summer grass / Is all that remains / Of the dreams of ancient warriors.

First snow-falling-on the half-finished bridge.

Sadly, I part from you; Like a clam torn from its shell, I go, and autumn too.

Don't imitate me / we are not two halves / of a muskmelon.

Felling a tree and gazing at the cut end - tonight's moon

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old seek what they sought.