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 BASHOOld pond, leap-splash – a frog.
More Matsuo Basho Quotes
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All my friends / viewing the moon – / an ugly bunch.
MATSUO BASHO -
Spring rain leaking through the roof dripping from the wasps’ nest.
MATSUO BASHO -
Learn the rules, and then forget them.
MATSUO BASHO -
Seek not the paths of the ancients; Seek that which the ancients sought.
MATSUO BASHO -
Spring rain conveyed under the trees in drops.
MATSUO BASHO -
Nothing in the cry of cicadas suggests they are about to die.
MATSUO BASHO -
How I long to see among dawn flowers, the face of God.
MATSUO BASHO -
I hope to have gathered To repay your kindness The willow leaves Scattered in the garden.
MATSUO BASHO -
Clapping my hands with the echoes the summer moon begins to dawn.
MATSUO BASHO -
Real poetry, is to lead a beautiful life. To live poetry is better than to write it.
MATSUO BASHO -
First snow-falling-on the half-finished bridge.
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 -
For this lovely bowl let us arrange these flowers since there is no rice.
MATSUO BASHO -
Year by year, the monkey’s mask reveals the monkey.
MATSUO BASHO -
Don’t imitate me / we are not two halves / of a muskmelon.
MATSUO BASHO






