Matsuo Basho Quotes

The desire to break the silence with constant human noise is, I believe, precisely an avoidance of the sacred terror of that divine encounter.

First snow-falling-on the half-finished bridge.

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

For this lovely bowl let us arrange these flowers since there is no rice.

Seek on high bare trails Sky-reflecting violets... Mountain-top jewels

All my friends / viewing the moon – / an ugly bunch.

When your consciousness has become ripe in true zazen-pure like clear water, like a serene mountain lake, not moved by any wind-then anything may serve as a medium for realization.

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

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

There is nothing you can see that is not a flower; there is nothing you can think that is not the moon.

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.

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

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

Without bitterest cold that penetrates to the very bone, how can plum blossoms send forth their fragrance all over the world?

Come, see the true flowers of this pained world.

Learn the rules, and then forget them.

The journey itself is my home.

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

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

How I long to see among dawn flowers, the face of God.

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

Twilight whippoorwill... Whistle on, sweet deepener Of dark loneliness

Every moment of life is the last, every poem is a death poem.

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.

Between our two lives there is also the life of the cherry blossom.

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

Learn about a pine tree from a pine tree, and about a bamboo plant from a bamboo plant.

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

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

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

Nothing in the cry of cicadas suggests they are about to die

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

Winter garden, the moon thinned to a thread, insects singing.

Farewell, my old fan. / Having scribbled on it, / What could I do but tear it / At the end of summer?

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

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

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought.

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

April's air stirs in Willow-leaves...a butterfly Floats and balances

Mountain-rose petals Falling, falling, falling now... Waterfall music

Spring rain conveyed under the trees in drops.

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

Awakened at midnight by the sound of the water jar cracking from the ice

Old pond, frog jumps in - plop.

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.

An autumn night - don’t think your life didn’t matter.

With every gust of wind, the butterfly changes its place on the willow.

A flute with no holes is not a flute.