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
the universe and its beings are a complementarity of empty infinity, intimate interrelationships, and total uniqueness of each and every being.
Learn how to listen as things speak for themselves.
Plunge Deep enough in order to see something that is hidden and glimmering.
Seek not the paths of the ancients; Seek that which the ancients sought.
Calm and serene The sound of a cicada Penetrates the rock.
An autumn night - don’t think your life didn’t matter.
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.
Year by year, the monkey's mask reveals the monkey
The oak tree: not interested in cherry blossoms.
Every moment of life is the last, every poem is a death poem.
The desire to break the silence with constant human noise is, I believe, precisely an avoidance of the sacred terror of that divine encounter.
My body, now close to fifty years of age, has become an old tree that bears bitter peaches, a snail which has lost its shell, a bagworm separated from its bag; it drifts with the winds and clouds that know no destination. Morning and night I have eaten traveler's fare, and have held out for alms a pilgrim's wallet.
Come, butterfly It's late- We've miles to go together.
From the pine tree, learn of the pine tree; And from the bamboo, of the bamboo