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 BASHOHarvest moon: around the pond I wander and the night is gone.
More Matsuo Basho Quotes
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Felling a tree and gazing at the cut end – tonight’s moon.
MATSUO BASHO -
Fresh spring! / The world is only Nine days old – / These fields and mountains!
MATSUO BASHO -
Learn how to listen as things speak for themselves.
MATSUO BASHO -
For this lovely bowl let us arrange these flowers since there is no rice.
MATSUO BASHO -
Come, see the true flowers of this pained world.
MATSUO BASHO -
The basis of art is change in the universe.
MATSUO BASHO -
Around existence twine, (Oh, bridge that hangs across the gorge!) ropes of twisted vine.
MATSUO BASHO -
From the pine tree, learn of the pine tree; And from the bamboo, of the bamboo.
MATSUO BASHO -
Winter solitude- in a world of one colour the sound of the wind.
MATSUO BASHO -
Every moment of life is the last, every poem is a death poem.
MATSUO BASHO -
Don’t imitate me / we are not two halves / of a muskmelon.
MATSUO BASHO -
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 -
No matter where your interest lies, you will not be able to accomplish anything unless you bring your deepest devotion to it.
MATSUO BASHO -
The journey itself is my home.
MATSUO BASHO -
Before enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water. After enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water.
MATSUO BASHO