black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

From all these trees, in the salads, the soup, everywhere, cherry blossoms fall.

Matsuo Basho

Felling a tree and gazing at the cut end – tonight’s moon.
MATSUO BASHO

Fall Moon Night Tree
Awakened at midnight by the sound of the water jar cracking from the ice.
MATSUO BASHO

Awake Ice Night Sound Water
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
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

Avoid Believe Break Desire Divine Human Myself Noise Silence Sound
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

Companion Humanity Leaving Mindset Mountain Universe Wisdom Yourself
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

Deep Enough Gide Leaving Object Subject Yourself
With every gust of wind, the butterfly changes its place on the willow.
MATSUO BASHO

Butterfly Change Mindset Place
Harvest moon: around the pond I wander and the night is gone.
MATSUO BASHO

Moon Myself Night Water
An autumn night – don’t think your life didn’t matter.
MATSUO BASHO

Autumn Life Night Thinking Yourself
Around existence twine, (Oh, bridge that hangs across the gorge!) ropes of twisted vine.
MATSUO BASHO

Existence Plant Rope Twisted
How I long to see among dawn flowers, the face of God.
MATSUO BASHO

Face Flower God Myself See
Nothing in the cry of cicadas suggests they are about to die.
MATSUO BASHO

Cry Death Flower
Year’s end, all corners of this floating world, swept.
MATSUO BASHO

Age Float Time World
Every moment of life is the last, every poem is a death poem.
MATSUO BASHO

Death Life Moments Poem
The moon and sun are travelers through eternity. Even the years wander on. Whether drifting through life on a boat or climbing toward old age leading a horse, each day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.
MATSUO BASHO

Age Deep Destiny Forever Home Journey Life Moon Old Sun Time Travel
Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, and the grass grows, by itself.
MATSUO BASHO

Growth Nature Quiet Spring

From all these trees, in the salads, the soup, everywhere, cherry blossoms fall.

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From all these trees, in the salads, the soup, everywhere, cherry blossoms fall.

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Popular Authors

More Matsuo Basho Quotes