Learn the rules, and then forget them.
MATSUO BASHOLearn the rules, and then forget them.
MATSUO BASHOApril’s air stirs in Willow-leaves, a butterfly Floats and balances.
MATSUO BASHOFresh spring! / The world is only Nine days old – / These fields and mountains!
MATSUO BASHONo matter where your interest lies, you will not be able to accomplish anything unless you bring your deepest devotion to it.
MATSUO BASHOThe sea darkens And a wild duck s call Is faintly white.
MATSUO BASHOThe universe and its beings are a complementarity of empty infinity, intimate interrelationships, and total uniqueness of each and every being.
MATSUO BASHOThe moon is brighter since the barn burned.
MATSUO BASHOFarewell, my old fan. / Having scribbled on it, / What could I do but tear it / At the end of summer?
MATSUO BASHOThe desire to break the silence with constant human noise is, I believe, precisely an avoidance of the sacred terror of that divine encounter.
MATSUO BASHOMake 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 BASHOPlunge Deep enough in order to see something that is hidden and glimmering.
MATSUO BASHOFirst snow-falling-on the half-finished bridge.
MATSUO BASHOCome, see the true flowers of this pained world.
MATSUO BASHOThere is nothing you can see that is not a flower; there is nothing you can think that is not the moon.
MATSUO BASHOEvery moment of life is the last, every poem is a death poem.
MATSUO BASHOYear’s end, all corners of this floating world, swept.
MATSUO BASHO