Matsuo Bash Quotes

All who have achieved excellence in art possess one thing in common; that is, a mind to be one with nature, throughout the seasons.

Matsuo Bash

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

Matsuo Bash

He who creates three to five haiku poems during a lifetime is a haiku poet. He who attains to completes ten is a master.

Matsuo Bash

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

Matsuo Bash

Who mourns makes grief his master. Who drinks makes pleasure his master.

Matsuo Bash

Seek not the paths of the ancients; Seek that which the ancients sought.

Matsuo Bash

There is nothing you can see that is not a flower; There is nothing you can think that is not the moon.

Matsuo Bash

Travelling, sick My dreams roam On a withered moor.

Matsuo Bash

Sick on a journey over parched fields dreams wander on.

Matsuo Bash

How still it is! Stinging into the stones, The locusts' trill.

Matsuo Bash

The summer grasses Of brave soldiers' dreams The aftermath.

Matsuo Bash

The passing of spring The birds weep and in the eyes Of fish there are tears.

Matsuo Bash