Basho Quotes & Sayings

Lightning
doesn't leave you enlightened
- good to know that — Matsuo Basho

Cormorant fishing:
How stirring,
How saddening — Basho Matsuo

Wintery day,
On my horse
A frozen shadow. — Basho Matsuo

There we did begin, Cloisterd in the waterfall, Our summer discipline. — Matsuo Basho

Not knowing the name of the tree,
I stood in the flood
of its sweet scent. — Matsuo Basho

I would ask the people who were generous toward my own work. After class one day a poetry professor said to me, "Hey, there's this guy Basho you would find interesting," and so I found Basho. A fiction teacher told me, "You ought to read Clarice Lispector if you're interested in that sort of in-between stuff," and then Lispector appeared. It's not magic. You just keep your eyes open. — John D'Agata

Before enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water. After enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water. — Matsuo Basho

Sadly, I part from you; Like a clam torn from its shell, I go, and autumn too. — Matsuo Basho

Learn the rules, and then forget them. — Matsuo Basho

Calm and serene The sound of a cicada Penetrates the rock. — Matsuo Basho

The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers. — Matsuo Basho

In the end, without skill or talent, I've given myself over entirely to poetry. Po Chu-i labored at it until he nearly burst. Tu Fu starved rather than abandon it. Neither my intelligence nor my writing is comparable to such men. Nevertheless, in the end, we ALL live in phantom huts. — Matsuo Basho

Come, let's go
Snow-viewing
Till we're buried. — Basho Matsuo

Not to think of yourself / as someone who did not count
/ Festival of the Souls. — Matsuo Basho

Hidden and unknown
Like the new moon
I will live my life — Basho Matsuo

Searching for the scent
of the early plum,
I found it by the eaves
Of a proud storehouse. — Matsuo Basho

Sick while traveling
dream of a withered field
wandering around — Matsuo Basho

Fresh spring! / The world is only Nine days old - / These fields and mountains! — Matsuo Basho

The oak tree:
not interested
in cherry blossoms. — Matsuo Basho

Days and months are travellers of eternity. So are the years that pass by. Those who steer a boat across the sea, or drive a horse over the earth till they succumb to the weight of years, spend every minute of their lives travelling. There are a great number of ancients, too, who died on the road. I myself have been tempted for a long time by the cloud-moving wind - filled with a strong desire to wander. — Matsuo Basho

Moonlit plum tree-
wait,
spring will come. — Basho Matsuo

Learn about a pine tree from a pine tree, and about a bamboo plant from a bamboo plant. — Matsuo Basho

Now the swinging bridge Is quieted with creepers ... Like our tendrilled life. — Matsuo Basho

Lonely stillness - a single cicada's cry sinking into stone — Basho Matsuo

'The Narrow Road to the Deep North' is one of the most famous books of all Japanese literature, written by the great poet Basho in 1689. — Richard Flanagan

A weathered skeleton
in windy fields of memory,
piercing like a knife. — Matsuo Basho

This autumn-
why am I growing old?
bird disappearing among clouds. — Matsuo Basho

Year after year
On the monkey's face:
A monkey's face. — Matsuo Basho

It is only a barbarous mind that sees other than the flower, merely an animal mind that dreams of other than the moon. — Matsuo Basho

Traveler's heart. Never settled long in one place. Like a portable fire. — Matsuo Basho

The sea darkens And a wild duck s call Is faintly white. — Matsuo Basho

Along this road goes no one, this autumn eve. — Basho Matsuo

Felling a tree and gazing at the cut end - tonight's moon — 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

How much I desire! Inside my little satchel, the moon, and flowers — Matsuo Basho

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

All who have achieved excellence in art possess one thing in common; that is, a mind to be one with nature, throughout the seasons. — Matsuo Basho

Do not resemble me-Never be like a musk melon Cut in two identical halves. — Matsuo Basho

Operating superficially, the mind is random in its activity and stale in its insights and images. However, with practice and experience the mind is freed from the skull, and the fresh and new can appear as though for the first time. It — Matsuo Basho

A warbler singing - somewhere beyond the willow, before the thicket — Matsuo Basho

A thicket of summer grass / Is all that remains / Of the dreams of ancient warriors. — Matsuo Basho

Real poetry, is to lead a beautiful life. To live poetry is better than to write it. — Matsuo Basho

Seek not the paths of the ancients;
Seek that which the ancients sought. — Matsuo Basho

Come, see real
flowers
of this painful world — Basho Matsuo

Don't imitate me / we are not two halves / of a muskmelon. — Matsuo Basho

When I speak My lips feel cold - The autumn wind. — Matsuo Basho

Learn the rules well. Then forget them." ~ Basho — Alvin Alexander

A flute with no holes is not a flute. — Matsuo Basho

I am one who eats breakfast gazing at morning glories. — Matsuo Basho

Without the bitterest cold that penetrates to the very bone, how can plum blossoms send forth their fragrance to the whole world? — Matsuo Basho

Here is a greedy man who keeps to himself
The beautiful pears ripe in his garden. — Matsuo Basho

The journey itself is my home. — Basho Matsuo

Old pond - frogs jumped in - sound of water — Basho Matsuo

When composing a verse let there not be a hair's breath separating your mind from what you write; composition of a poem must be done in an instant, like a woodcutter felling a huge tree or a swordsman leaping at a dangerous enemy. — Matsuo Basho

Why so scrawny, cat?
Starving for fat fish or mice ...
Or backyard love? — Matsuo Basho

The universe and its beings are a complementarity of empty infinity, intimate interrelationships, and total uniqueness of each and every being. — Matsuo Basho

On a bare branch a crow is perched - autumn evening — Matsuo Basho

I do not seek to walk in the paths of the wise men of old, I seek what they sought. — Matsuo Basho

Spring rain leaking through the roof dripping from the wasps' nest. — Matsuo Basho

First snow-falling-on the half-finished bridge. — Matsuo Basho

Winter solitude- in a world of one colour the sound of the wind. — Matsuo Basho

on this mountain
sorrow...tell me about it
digger of wild yams — Basho Matsuo

Summer grasses,
All that remains
Of soldiers' dreams — 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

Old yam digger please explain this mountain's sorrows — Basho Matsuo

An autumn night - don't think your life didn't matter. — Matsuo Basho

Clapping my hands with the echoes the summer moon begins to dawn. — Matsuo Basho

There came a day when the clouds drifting along with the wind aroused a wanderlust in me, and I set off on a journey to roam along the seashores — Matsuo Basho

Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, and the grass grows, by itself. — Matsuo Basho

Learn how to listen as things speak for themselves. — Matsuo Basho

Chrysanthemum
Silence - monk
Sips his morning tea. — Matsuo Basho

Plunge Deep enough in order to see something that is hidden and glimmering. — 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

At one time I was weary of verse writing, and wanted to give it up. At another time I was determined to be a poet until I could establish a proud name over others. The alternatives battled in my mind and made my life restless. — Matsuo Basho

The moon is brighter since the barn burned. — Matsuo Basho

The fact that Saigyo composed a poem that begins, "I shall be unhappy without loneliness," shows that he made loneliness his master. — Matsuo Basho

On this road
where nobody else travels
autumn nightfall. — Matsuo Basho

Ryogoku Kokugikan* Ryogoku, the largest sumo stadium in Japan with a capacity of 10,000 spectators, holds grand tournaments of basho in January, May and September. These magnificent 15-day long tournaments are filled with ceremonies and rituals that are as interesting as the wrestling matches themselves. The competition begins around 9am each day, with amateur matches, and progress in order of seniority as the day continues. — Wanderlust Pocket Guides

All Heaven and Earth
Flowered white obliterate...
Snow...unceasing snow — Basho Matsuo

Moon woke me up
nine times
- still just 4 a.m. — Basho Matsuo

you make the fire
and I'll show you something wonderful:
a big ball of snow! — Basho Matsuo

Come out to view / the truth of flowers blooming / in poverty. — Matsuo Basho

The past remains hidden in clouds of memory. — Basho Matsuo

If I had the knack
I'd sing like
Cherry flakes falling — Matsuo Basho

I felt quite at home, / As if it were mine sleeping lazily / In this house of fresh air. — Matsuo Basho

Around existence twine, (Oh, bridge that hangs across the gorge!) ropes of twisted vine. — Matsuo Basho

Breaking the silence Of an ancient pond, A frog jumped into water - A deep resonance. — Matsuo Basho

At the ancient pond the frog plunges into the sound of water — Matsuo Basho

Harvest moon: around the pond I wander and the night is gone. — Matsuo Basho

Old dark sleepy pool ... Quick unexpected frog Goes plop! Watersplash! — Matsuo Basho

Even in Kyoto/Hearing the cuckoo's cry/I long for Kyoto — Matsuo Basho

Year's end still in straw hat and sandals — Matsuo Basho

Pausing between clouds
the moon rests
in the eyes of its beholders — Matsuo Basho

Collecting all The rains of May The swift Mogami River. — Matsuo Basho

In my new robe
this morning -
someone else. — Basho Matsuo

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

Many solemn nights
Blond moon, we stand and marvel...
Sleeping our noons away — Basho Matsuo

I hope to have gathered
To repay your kindness
The willow leaves
Scattered in the garden. — Matsuo Basho

A bush-warbler,
Coming to the verandah-edge,
Left its droppings
On the rice-cakes. — Matsuo Basho

When we are alone on a starlit night, when by chance we see the migrating birds in autumn descending on a grove of junipers to rest and eat; when we see children in a moment when they are really children, when we know love in our own hearts; or when, like the Japanese poet, Basho, we hear an old frog land in a quiet pond with a solitary splash - at such times the awakening, the turning inside out of all values, the "newness," the emptiness and the purity of vision that make themselves evident, all these provide a glimpse of the cosmic dance. — Thomas Merton