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 BASHOAll my friends / viewing the moon – / an ugly bunch.
More Matsuo Basho Quotes
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On a bare branch a crow is perched – autumn evening.
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Breaking the silence Of an ancient pond, A frog jumped into water – A deep resonance.
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Friends part forever wild geese lost in cloud.
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Year’s end, all corners of this floating world, swept.
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Farewell, my old fan. / Having scribbled on it, / What could I do but tear it / At the end of summer?
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Poverty’s child – he starts to grind the rice, and gazes at the moon.
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Winter garden, the moon thinned to a thread, insects singing.
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The moon is brighter since the barn burned.
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Before enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water. After enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water.
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Spring rain conveyed under the trees in drops.
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This autumn- why am I growing old? bird disappearing among clouds.
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How I long to see among dawn flowers, the face of God.
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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.
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All my friends / viewing the moon – / an ugly bunch.
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Come out to view / the truth of flowers blooming / in poverty.
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Winter solitude- in a world of one colour the sound of the wind.
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Nothing in the cry of cicadas suggests they are about to die.
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Without bitterest cold that penetrates to the very bone, how can plum blossoms send forth their fragrance all over the world?
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When I speak My lips feel cold – The autumn wind.
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First snow-falling-on the half-finished bridge.
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Come, butterfly It’s late- We’ve miles to go together.
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The oak tree: not interested in cherry blossoms.
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Learn the rules, and then forget them.
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I am one who eats breakfast gazing at morning glories.
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Come, see the true flowers of this pained world.
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Calm and serene The sound of a cicada Penetrates the rock.
MATSUO BASHO