black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

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

Matsuo Basho

Summer grasses — all that remains of great soldiers’ imperial dreams.
MATSUO BASHO

Dreams Greatness Summer
Old pond, frog jumps in – plop.
MATSUO BASHO

Old Pond
How much I desire! Inside my little satchel, the moon, and flowers.
MATSUO BASHO

Desire Flower Moon Myself
The sea darkens And a wild duck s call Is faintly white.
MATSUO BASHO

Animal Call Darkness Sea White Wild
Old dark sleepy pool… Quick unexpected frog Goes plop! Watersplash!
MATSUO BASHO

Dark Expectation Old Sleep Water
The oak tree: not interested in cherry blossoms.
MATSUO BASHO

Flower Interest Tree
A flute with no holes is not a flute.
MATSUO BASHO

Deep Instrument One Liner
Poverty’s child – he starts to grind the rice, and gazes at the moon.
MATSUO BASHO

Children Moon Poverty Start
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 Moon Nature See Thinking Yourself
Collecting all The rains of May The swift Mogami River.
MATSUO BASHO

Collection Rain River Water
The basis of art is change in the universe.
MATSUO BASHO

Art Change One Liner Universe
How I long to see among dawn flowers, the face of God.
MATSUO BASHO

Face Flower God Myself See
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

Breathe Compose Dangerous Enemy Fall Hairs Mindset Tree Writing
Without bitterest cold that penetrates to the very bone, how can plum blossoms send forth their fragrance all over the world?
MATSUO BASHO

Bone Cold Deep Fragrance Nature Perfume World
Spring rain leaking through the roof dripping from the wasps’ nest.
MATSUO BASHO

Home Insect Rain Spring
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

Knowledge Learning Leaving Nature Wisdom Yourself

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

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

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