Kobayashi Issa Quotes & Sayings

Take a nap
Making the mountain water
Pound the rice. — Kobayashi Issa

What a strange thing!
to be alive
beneath cherry blossoms. — Kobayashi Issa

Not gifted with genius but honestly holding his experiences deep in his heart, he kept his simplicity and humanity. — Kobayashi Issa

This dewdrop world
Is but a dewdrop world
And yet - — Kobayashi Issa

Where there are humans,
You'll find flies,
And Buddhas. — Kobayashi Issa

Don't weep, insects
Lovers, stars themselves,
Must part. — Kobayashi Issa

All the time I pray to Buddha I keep on killing mosquitoes. — Kobayashi Issa

Reflected
in the dragonfly's eye --
mountains. — Kobayashi Issa

Face of the spring moon- about twelve years old, I'd say. — Kobayashi Issa

Giddy grasshopper
Take care ... do not leap and crush
These pearls of dewdrop — Kobayashi Issa

Moon, plum blossoms, this, that, and the day goes — Kobayashi Issa

Summer night
even the stars
are whispering to each other. — Kobayashi Issa

To the fuki plant, dandelions, and their kind that lie for long patiently under the fallen snow, comes the season of breezy spring. No sooner do they see the light of the world, stretching their longing heads out from the cracks in the snow, than they are instantly nipped off. For these plants isn't the sorrow as deep as that of the child's parents whose child had accidentally died? They say everything in the plant and tree kingdom attains Buddhahood. Then they, too, must have Buddha-nature. — Kobayashi Issa

In the city fields
Contemplating cherry-trees ...
Strangers are like friends — Kobayashi Issa

Here
I'm here-
the snow falling. — Kobayashi Issa

Even in warmest
glow
how cold my shadow — Kobayashi Issa

Carrying a poppy he passes through the quarrel. — Kobayashi Issa

Before the gate
my walking stick's made a river of melting snow — Kobayashi Issa

Never forget:
we walk on hell,
gazing at flowers. — Kobayashi Issa

The world of dew
is the world of dew.
And yet, and yet
— Kobayashi Issa

Hi! My little hut
Is newly-thatched I see ...
Blue morning-glories — Kobayashi Issa

Hey sparrows
no pissing on my old
winter quilt! — Kobayashi Issa

On the Death of his Child Dew Evaporates And all our world is dew ... so dear, So fresh, so fleeting — Kobayashi Issa

Arise from sleep, old cat, And with great yawns and stretchings ... Amble out for love — Kobayashi Issa

Don't kill! ...
The fly is asking you
To save his life
By rubbing his hands together — Kobayashi Issa

There is no stranger under the cherry tree. — Kobayashi Issa

Red morning sky - snail, are you glad of it? — Kobayashi Issa

Even with insects - some can sing, some can't. — Kobayashi Issa

In the cherry blossom's shade there's no such thing as a stranger. — Kobayashi Issa

A world of grief and pain
Flowers bloom
Even then — Kobayashi Issa

Listen, all creeping things, the bell of transience. — Kobayashi Issa

Dry creek
glimpsed
by lightning — Kobayashi Issa

O snail
Climb Mount Fuji
But slowly, slowly! — Kobayashi Issa