Matsuo Basho famous quotes

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Inspirational #Life #Positive

Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Nature #Home #Journey

There is nothing you can see that is not a flower; there is nothing you can think that is not the moon.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Flower #Thinking #Moon

An autumn night - don’t think your life didn’t matter.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Autumn #Night #Thinking

When your consciousness has become ripe in true zazen-pure like clear water, like a serene mountain lake, not moved by any wind-then anything may serve as a medium for realization.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Wind #Lakes #Water

All my friends / viewing the moon – / an ugly bunch.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Moon #Ugly #Bunch

Seek not the paths of the ancients; Seek that which the ancients sought.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Path

The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Flower #Bells #Temples

Real poetry, is to lead a beautiful life. To live poetry is better than to write it.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Beautiful #Real #Writing

Nothing in the cry of cicadas suggests they are about to die
-- Matsuo Basho

#Cicadas #Cry

The journey itself is my home.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Travel #Adventure #Home

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
-- Matsuo Basho

#Journey #Clouds #Wind

Friends part foreverwild geese lost in cloud
-- Matsuo Basho

#Clouds #Lost #Geese

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

#Moon #Night #Gone

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

#Winter #Garden #Moon

Awakened at midnight by the sound of the water jar cracking from the ice
-- Matsuo Basho

#Ice #Water #Jars

Summer grasses, All that remains Of soldiers' dreams
-- Matsuo Basho

#Summer #Dream #Soldier

When composing a verse let there not be a hair's breath separating your mind from what you write; composition of a poem must be done in an instant, like a woodcutter felling a huge tree or a swordsman leaping at a dangerous enemy.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Writing #Positivity #Hair

Even in Kyoto/Hearing the cuckoo's cry/I long for Kyoto
-- Matsuo Basho

#Kyoto #Long #Cuckoos

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

#Children #Moon #Poverty

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

#Autumn #Shells #Clams

The moon and sun are travelers through eternity. Even the years wander on. Whether drifting through life on a boat or climbing toward old age leading a horse, each day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Horse #Home #Moon

From the pine tree, learn of the pine tree; And from the bamboo, of the bamboo
-- Matsuo Basho

#Inspirational Life #Tree #Pine Trees

Old pond, frog jumps in - plop.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Ponds #Frogs

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

#Garden #Cry #Cricket

How I long to see among dawn flowers, the face of God.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Flower #Long #Faces

Calm and serene The sound of a cicada Penetrates the rock.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Nature #Rocks #Cicadas

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

#Fall #Bridges #Snow

Sabi is the color of haikai. It is different from tranquility. For example, if an old man dresses up in armor and helmet and goes to the battlefield, or in colorful brocade kimono, attending (his lord) at a banquet, [sabi] is like this old figure.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Men #Color #Dresses

He who creates three to five haiku poems during a lifetime is a haiku poet. He who attains to completes ten is a master.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Three #Lifetime #Poet

The haiku that reveals seventy to eighty percent of its subject is good. Those that reveal fifty to sixty percent, we never tire of.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Fifty #Tire #Haiku

My body, now close to fifty years of age, has become an old tree that bears bitter peaches, a snail which has lost its shell, a bagworm separated from its bag; it drifts with the winds and clouds that know no destination. Morning and night I have eaten traveler's fare, and have held out for alms a pilgrim's wallet.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Morning #Night #Years

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

#Loneliness #Unhappy #Facts

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

#Water #Silence #Frogs

Old pond, leap-splash - a frog.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Ponds #Frogs #Leap

At the ancient pond the frog plunges into the sound of water
-- Matsuo Basho

#Water #Frogs #Sound

Orchidbreathing incense into butterfly's wings
-- Matsuo Basho

#Butterfly #Wings #Incense

Year's end still in straw hat and sandals
-- Matsuo Basho

#Years #Hats #Ends

Year by year, the monkey's mask reveals the monkey
-- Matsuo Basho

#Years #Monkeys #Mask

Clapping my hands with the echoes the summer moon begins to dawn.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Summer #Moon #Hands

Collecting all The rains of May The swift Mogami River.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Rain #Rivers #Water

In this poor body, composed of one hundred bones and nine openings, is something called spirit, a flimsy curtain swept this way and that by the slightest breeze. It is spirit, such as it is, which led me to poetry, at first little more than a pastime, then the full business of my life. There have been times when my spirit, so dejected, almost gave up the quest, other times when it was proud, triumphant. So it has been from the very start, never finding peace with itself, always doubting the worth of what it makes.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Poetry #Doubt #Quests

No matter where your interest lies, you will not be able to accomplish anything unless you bring your deepest devotion to it.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Lying #Passion #Matter

Come, see the true flowers of this pained world.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Flower #World

Come, butterfly It's late- We've miles to go together.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Butterfly #Together #Miles

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

#Fall #Knack #Flakes

On a bare branch a crow is perched - autumn evening
-- Matsuo Basho

#Autumn #Crow #Evening

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

#Butterfly #White #Air

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

#Jewels #Sky #Mountain

For a lovely bowl Let us arrange these flowers... For there is no rice
-- Matsuo Basho

#Flower #Lovely #Rice

Why so scrawny, cat? Starving for fat fish or mice... Or backyard love?
-- Matsuo Basho

#Cat #Backyards #Fats

April's air stirs in Willow-leaves...a butterfly Floats and balances
-- Matsuo Basho

#Spring #Butterfly #Air

Mountain-rose petals Falling, falling, falling now... Waterfall music
-- Matsuo Basho

#Fall #Rose #Mountain

Twilight whippoorwill... Whistle on, sweet deepener Of dark loneliness
-- Matsuo Basho

#Sweet #Loneliness #Twilight

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

#Dark #Frogs #Unexpected

How much I desire! Inside my little satchel, the moon, and flowers
-- Matsuo Basho

#Flower #Moon #Desire

From all these trees, in the salads, the soup, everywhere, cherry blossoms fall.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Spring #Fall #Tree

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

#Autumn #Clouds #Bird

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

#Winter #Wind #Solitude

Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, and the grass grows, by itself.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Inspirational #Positive #Spring

The moon is brighter since the barn burned.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Moon #Barns #Burned

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

#Fall #Autumn #Wind

The oak tree: not interested in cherry blossoms.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Spring #Tree #Cherry Blossom

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

#Sleep #Home #Air

Come out to view / the truth of flowers blooming / in poverty.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Flower #Views #Blooming

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

#Spring #Mountain #Nine

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

#Water #Frogs #Sound

Go to the pine if you want to learn about the pine, or to the bamboo if you want to learn about the bamboo. And in doing so, you must leave your subjective preoccupation with yourself. Otherwise you impose yourself on the object and you do not learn.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Want #Bamboo #Preoccupation

the universe and its beings are a complementarity of empty infinity, intimate interrelationships, and total uniqueness of each and every being.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Infinity #Emptiness #Empty

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

#Holiday #Winter #Years

Spring rain leaking through the roof dripping from the wasps' nest.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Spring #Rain #May

Between our two lives there is also the life of the cherry blossom.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Two #Cherry Blossom #Cherries

Operating superficially, the mind is random in its activity and stale in its insights and images. However, with practice and experience the mind is freed from the skull, and the fresh and new can appear as though for the first time. It
-- Matsuo Basho

#Time #Practice #Skulls

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

#Nature #Ducks #White

Learn about a pine tree from a pine tree, and about a bamboo plant from a bamboo plant.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Learning #Tree #Bamboo

A weathered skeleton in windy fields of memory, piercing like a knife.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Memories #Knives #Skeletons

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

#Life #Bridges #Creepers

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

#Summer #Farewell #Tears

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

#Thinking #Soul #Festivals

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

#Two #Half

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

#New Year #Journey #Years

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

#Summer #Dream #Warrior

Spring rain conveyed under the trees in drops.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Spring #Rain #Tree

Go to the object. Leave your subjective preoccupation with yourself. Do not impose yourself on the object. Become one with the object. Plunge deep enough into the object to see something like a hidden glimmering there.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Action #Enough #Plunge

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

#Bridges #Vines #Gorges

Do not resemble me-Never be like a musk melon Cut in two identical halves.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Cutting #Two #Individuality

Before enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water. After enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Water #Enlightenment #Woods

With every gust of wind, the butterfly changes its place on the willow.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Butterfly #Wind

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

#Kindness #Garden

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

#Cutting #Moon #July

Just washed, How chill The white leeks!
-- Matsuo Basho

#White #Justice #Chill

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

#Travel #Heart #Fire

I am one who eats breakfast gazing at morning glories.
-- Matsuo Basho

#Morning #Gazing #Breakfast

Without the bitterest cold that penetrates to the very bone, how can plum blossoms send forth their fragrance to the whole world?
-- Matsuo Basho

#Life #World #Plums