All my friends / viewing the moon – / an ugly bunch.
MATSUO BASHOPoverty’s child – he starts to grind the rice, and gazes at the moon.
More Matsuo Basho Quotes
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Calm and serene The sound of a cicada Penetrates the rock.
MATSUO BASHO -
Old dark sleepy pool… Quick unexpected frog Goes plop! Watersplash!
MATSUO BASHO -
Every moment of life is the last, every poem is a death poem.
MATSUO BASHO -
Awakened at midnight by the sound of the water jar cracking from the ice.
MATSUO BASHO -
Fresh spring! / The world is only Nine days old – / These fields and mountains!
MATSUO BASHO -
Around existence twine, (Oh, bridge that hangs across the gorge!) ropes of twisted vine.
MATSUO BASHO -
A flute with no holes is not a flute.
MATSUO BASHO -
Go to the object. Leave your subjective preoccupation with yourself. Do not impose yourself on the object. Become one with the object. Plunge deep enough into the object to see something like a hidden glimmering there.
MATSUO BASHO -
Traveler’s heart. Never settled long in one place. Like a portable fire.
MATSUO BASHO -
I am one who eats breakfast gazing at morning glories.
MATSUO BASHO -
I hope to have gathered To repay your kindness The willow leaves Scattered in the garden.
MATSUO BASHO -
Seek not the paths of the ancients; Seek that which the ancients sought.
MATSUO BASHO -
Real poetry, is to lead a beautiful life. To live poetry is better than to write it.
MATSUO BASHO -
Year by year, the monkey’s mask reveals the monkey.
MATSUO BASHO -
Summer grasses — all that remains of great soldiers’ imperial dreams.
MATSUO BASHO