Top 10 Matsuo Bashō Quotes

Japanese poet (1644–1694)

Add quote

Matsuo Bashō (松尾芭蕉, 1644 – 28 November 1694) was a major Japanese poet, primarily known for his achievements in the haikai no renga and haiku (as it would become known later) forms, and his poetic diaries.

From: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Pen Names: 松尾甚七郎 • 松尾甚四郎 • 俳聖

Alternative Names: Matsuo Basho • Matsuo Bashou • Bashō • Basho • Bashou • Matsuo Bashô • Bashô • 金作 • 甚七郎 • 甚四郎 • まつおばしょう

From Wikidata (CC0)

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 haiku that reveals seventy to eighty percent of its subject is good. Those that reveal fifty to sixty percent, we never tire of.

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.

The fact that Saigyo composed a poem that begins, "I shall be unhappy without loneliness," shows that he made loneliness his master.

It rains during the morning. No visitors today. I feel lonely and amuse myself by writing at random. These are the words:
Who mourns makes grief his master.
Who drinks makes pleasure his master.

さびは句の色なり。閑寂なる句をいふにあらず。たとへば、老人の甲冑をたいし戦場に働き、錦繍をかざり御宴に侍りても、老の姿有るがごとし。

古人の跡を求めず、
古人の求めたるの所を求めよ。

見るところ花にあらずと云ふことなし、
思ふところ月にあらずと云ふことなし。

Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.

The yellow rose
petals—one by one—gone into
roaring waterfalls