Matsuo Bashō

Matsuo Bashō (松尾芭蕉, 1644 – 28 November 1694) was a major Japanese poet, primarily known for his haiku poems and poetic diaries.

Quotes

Oku no Hosomichi - The Narrow Road to the Interior (1702)

Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.
- Translation of Sam Hamill, Narrow Road to the Interior and other writings (2000), page 3

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

行く春や
鳥啼き魚の
目は泪
yuku haru ya
tori naki uo no
me wa namida
- Spring passes
  and the birds cry out—tears
  in the eyes of fishes
  - Matsuo Bashō, Narrow Road to the Interior and other writings, Boston, 2000, p. 4 (Translation: Sam Hamill)
- Spring is passing by!
  Birds are weeping and the eyes
  Of fish fill with tears.
  - Matsuo Bashō, The Narrow Road to Oku, Tokyo, 1996, p. 23 (Translation: Donald Keene)

夏草や
兵どもが
夢の跡
natsukusa ya
tsuwamonodomo ga
yume no ato
- The summer grasses—
  For many brave warriors
  The aftermath of dreams.
  - Donald Keene, Travelers of a Hundred Ages, New York, 1999, p. 316 (Translation: Donald Keene)
- The summer grasses—
  Of brave soldiers' dreams
  The aftermath.
  - Matsuo Bashō, The Narrow Road to Oku, Tokyo, 1996, p. 87 (Translation: Donald Keene)

静けさや
岩に滲み入る
蝉の声
shizukesaya
iwa ni shimiiru
semi no koe
- How still it is!
  Stinging into the stones,
  The locusts' trill.
  - Donald Keene, World Within Walls: Japanese Literature of the Pre-Modern Era, 1600-1867, New York, 1999, p. 89 (Translation: Donald Keene)

Individual poems

朝顔に
我は飯食ふ
男かな
asagao ni
ware wa meshi kû
otoko kana
- I am one
  Who eats his breakfast,
  Gazing at morning glories.
  - The Way of Silence: The Prose and Poetry of Basho (1970), Richard Lewis

京にても
京なつかしや
時鳥
kyou nitemo
kyou natsukashi ya
hototogisu
- Even in Kyōto—
  hearing the cuckoo's cry—
  I long for Kyōto
  - Robert Hass (1994) The Essential Haiku: Versions of Bashō, Buson, and Issa
- Bird of time –
  in Kyoto, pining
  for Kyoto.
  - Basho, On Love and Barley: Haiku of Basho, London, 1985, p. 43 (Translation: Lucien Stryk)

古池や
蛙飛び込む
水の音
furu ike ya
kawazu tobikomu
mizu no oto
- The old pond:
  A frog jumps in,—
  The sound of the water.
  - Classical Japanese Database, Translation #64 (Translation: Reginald Horace Blyth)
- At the ancient pond
  the frog plunges into
  the sound of water
  - (Translation: Sam Hamill)
- Old pond,
  leap-splash –
  a frog.
  - Basho, On Love and Barley: Haiku of Basho, London, 1985, p. 58 (Translation: Lucien Stryk)
- Breaking the silence
  Of an ancient pond,
  A frog jumped into water –
  A deep resonance.
  - Matsuo Bashō, The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches, London, 1966, p. 9 (Translation: Nobuyuki Yuasa)

やがて死ぬ
けしきは見えず
蝉の声
yagate shinu
keshiki wa miezu
semi no koe
- Soon to die
  yet showing no sign
  the cicada's voice
  - [1] [2]

旅に病で
夢は枯野を
かけ廻る
tabi ni yande
yume wa kareno wo
kake-meguru
- Sick on a journey,
  my dreams wander
  the withered fields.
  - Bashō's last poem, written while he was dying of a stomach illness. (Translation: Robert Hass)
- Sick on a journey –
  over parched fields
  dreams wander on.
  - Basho, On Love and Barley: Haiku of Basho, London, 1985, p. 81 (Translation: Lucien Stryk)
- Travelling, sick
  My dreams roam
  On a withered moor.
  - (Unknown translator)
- Reported as Basho's death poem.

Moon almost full
I'm thirty-nine
a child still.
- Translation of David Young, Moon Woke Me Up Nine Times: Selected Haiku of Basho (2013)

Miscellaneous quotations

古人の跡を求めず，古人の求めしところを求めよ。
kojin no ato wo motomezu, kozjin no motometaru tokoro wo motomeyo
- Seek not the paths of the ancients; Seek that which the ancients sought.
  - Translation found in Jackson, B. (2014) The Inspirational Atheist: Wise Words on the Wonder and Meaning of Life, where it is cited as being from "Words by a Brushwood Gate"

I feel lonely as I gaze at the moon. I feel lonely as I think about myself, and I feel lonely as I ponder upon this wretched life of mine. I want to cry out that I am lonely, but no one asks me how I feel.
- Basho: The Complete Haiku (2013), Jane Reichhold

Even if you have three or four extra syllables—or as many as five or seven—you need not worry as long as the verse sounds right.
- From a letter to Takayama Biji, 20 June 1682, as quoted in Basho: The Complete Haiku (2013) by Jane Reichhold

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.
- Robert Hass (1994) The Essential Haiku: Versions of Bashō, Buson, and Issa

It was a rainy day when I crossed over the Hakone Barrier, and all the mountains were veiled in clouds.

Days like this, when Mt Fuji cannot be seen
For the misty rain,
Have an appeal all on their own.

- The Literature of Mt Fuji: Japanese Classical Literature, 2017, Chuo University; cited as being from "Nozarashi kiko 野ざらし紀行（Bleached Bones in the Field, 1684)"
  - This haiku also translated by Jane Reichhold in Basho: The Complete Haiku (2013) as:
    misty showers
    the day one cannot see Mount Fuji
    it is more attractive

Mount Fuji, towering up from the earth, supporting the firmament so high above, seems to rend open the clouds that the sun and moon might shine through. Viewed from any position, the mountain seemingly presents its finest vista, infinitely changing. The poet is at a loss for suitable verses; the scholar finds his words lacking; the painter, throwing down his brushes, scurries off. Even if by chance an immortal should descend from Mount Miǎogūyè, would he be able to compose suitable verses, or paint a faithful picture?

All in an instant, now amidst clouds, now within mist,
One hundred beautiful scenes are revealed.

- The Literature of Mt Fuji: Japanese Classical Literature, 2017, Chuo University; cited as being from "Shiho no san 士峰の賛 (In Praise of Mount Fuji), which is essentially a preface to one of Bashō's poems"

The fact that Saigyō composed the poem that begins, "I shall be unhappy without loneliness," shows that he made loneliness his master. He also wrote:
In the mountain village
who are you calling, yobuko-bird?
I thought you lived alone.

There's nothing so intriguing as living alone.

- Robert Hass (1994) The Essential Haiku: Versions of Bashō, Buson, and Issa

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.
- Genjūan no Fu ("Prose Poem on the Unreal Dwelling") in Donald Keene, Anthology of Japanese Literature, p. 374 (Translation: Donald Keene)

The haiku that reveals seventy to eighty percent of its subject is good. Those that reveal fifty to sixty percent, we never tire of.
- As quoted in Collected Haiku Theory, eds. T. Komiya & S. Yokozawa, Iwanami, 1951 (Unknown translator)

He who creates three to five haiku poems during a lifetime is a haiku poet. He who attains to completes ten is a master.
- As quoted in Collected Haiku Theory, eds. T. Komiya & S. Yokozawa, Iwanami, 1951 (Unknown translator)

Quotes about

... the sparrow’s chirp, the crow’s caw, the willow’s green, the cherry blossom’s pink, are the truth of the Zen master and the essence of Basho's style.
- Masaoka Shiki, Janine Beichman, 1982, Masaoka Shiki

Disputed

The yellow rose
petals—one by one—gone into
roaring waterfalls
- Attributed to Basho by Arun Shourie in Preparing: For Death (2020)

External links

Wikipedia

Wikipedia has an article about:

Matsuo Bashō

Classical Japanese Database, featuring various poems by Bashō in original and translation
"Matsuo Bashô: Frog Haiku", featuring 31 translations and one commentary of the haiku