Matsuo Basho
Matsuo Basho
Matsuo Bashō, born 松尾 金作, then Matsuo Chūemon Munefusa, was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as the greatest master of haiku. Matsuo Bashō's poetry is internationally renowned; and, in Japan, many of his poems are reproduced on monuments and traditional sites. Although Bashō is justifiably famous in the West for his...
NationalityJapanese
ProfessionPoet
CountryJapan
I am one who eats breakfast gazing at morning glories.
Traveler's heart. Never settled long in one place. Like a portable fire.
He who creates three to five haiku poems during a lifetime is a haiku poet. He who attains to completes ten is a master.
The moon is brighter since the barn burned.
The old pond, ah! A frog jumps in: The water's sound.
The haiku that reveals seventy to eighty percent of its subject is good. Those that reveal fifty to sixty percent, we never tire of.
I hope to have gathered To repay your kindness The willow leaves Scattered in the garden.
Felling a tree and gazing at the cut end - tonight's moon
Sabi is the color of haikai. It is different from tranquility. For example, if an old man dresses up in armor and helmet and goes to the battlefield, or in colorful brocade kimono, attending (his lord) at a banquet, [sabi] is like this old figure.
O cricket from your cherry cry No one would ever guess How quickly you must die.
Summer grasses, All that remains Of soldiers' dreams
Now the swinging bridge Is quieted with creepers ... Like our tendrilled life.
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.
Without the bitterest cold that penetrates to the very bone, how can plum blossoms send forth their fragrance to the whole world?