At the ancient pond the frog plunges into the sound of water.
MATSUO BASHOAwakened at midnight by the sound of the water jar cracking from the ice.
More Matsuo Basho Quotes
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First snow-falling-on the half-finished bridge.
MATSUO BASHO -
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 -
Nothing in the cry of cicadas suggests they are about to die.
MATSUO BASHO -
I am one who eats breakfast gazing at morning glories.
MATSUO BASHO -
Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, and the grass grows, by itself.
MATSUO BASHO -
Traveler’s heart. Never settled long in one place. Like a portable fire.
MATSUO BASHO -
Calm and serene The sound of a cicada Penetrates the rock.
MATSUO BASHO -
Around existence twine, (Oh, bridge that hangs across the gorge!) ropes of twisted vine.
MATSUO BASHO -
Come out to view / the truth of flowers blooming / in poverty.
MATSUO BASHO -
The desire to break the silence with constant human noise is, I believe, precisely an avoidance of the sacred terror of that divine encounter.
MATSUO BASHO -
Make the universe your companion, always bearing in mind the true nature of things-mountains and rivers, trees and grasses, and humanity-and enjoy the falling blossoms and the scattering leaves.
MATSUO BASHO -
Every moment of life is the last, every poem is a death poem.
MATSUO BASHO -
Sadly, I part from you; Like a clam torn from its shell, I go, and autumn too.
MATSUO BASHO -
How I long to see among dawn flowers, the face of God.
MATSUO BASHO -
Come, see the true flowers of this pained world.
MATSUO BASHO -
Clapping my hands with the echoes the summer moon begins to dawn.
MATSUO BASHO -
Old dark sleepy pool… Quick unexpected frog Goes plop! Watersplash!
MATSUO BASHO -
April’s air stirs in Willow-leaves, a butterfly Floats and balances.
MATSUO BASHO -
A flute with no holes is not a flute.
MATSUO BASHO -
Plunge Deep enough in order to see something that is hidden and glimmering.
MATSUO BASHO -
There is nothing you can see that is not a flower; there is nothing you can think that is not the moon.
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 -
Old pond, frog jumps in – plop.
MATSUO BASHO -
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 -
An autumn night – don’t think your life didn’t matter.
MATSUO BASHO -
A thicket of summer grass / Is all that remains / Of the dreams of ancient warriors.
MATSUO BASHO