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
Year's end still in straw hat and sandals
Year's end, all corners of this floating world, swept.
Along my journey / through this transitory world, / new year's housecleaning.
Year by year, the monkey's mask reveals the monkey
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.
Seek not to follow in the footsteps of men of old; seek what they sought.
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.
There is nothing you can see that is not a Bashoflower; there is nothing you can think that is not the moon.
At the ancient pond the frog plunges into the sound of water
Friends part foreverwild geese lost in cloud
Old pond, leap-splash - a frog.
First snow-falling-on the half-finished bridge.
The fact that Saigyo composed a poem that begins, "I shall be unhappy without loneliness," shows that he made loneliness his master.
The sea darkens And a wild duck s call Is faintly white.