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 journey itself is my home.
Around existence twine, (Oh, bridge that hangs across the gorge!) ropes of twisted vine.
Learn about a pine tree from a pine tree, and about a bamboo plant from a bamboo plant.
The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers.
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.
What is important is to keep our mind high in the world of true understanding, and returning to the world of our daily experience to seek therein the truth of beauty. No matter what we may be doing at a given moment, we must not forget that is has a bearing upon our everlasting self which is poetry.
April's air stirs in Willow-leaves...a butterfly Floats and balances
Why so scrawny, cat? Starving for fat fish or mice... Or backyard love?
Come out to view / the truth of flowers blooming / in poverty.
All my friends / viewing the moon – / an ugly bunch.
Old pond, frog jumps in - plop.
How I long to see among dawn flowers, the face of God.
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.
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.