Basho

“On a bare branch a crow is perched - autumn evening”

“Old dark sleepy pool...Quick unexpected frog Goes plop! Watersplash!”

“Why so scrawny, cat?Starving for fat fish or mice...Or backyard love?”

“Mountain-rose petalsFalling, falling, falling now...Waterfall music”

“Twilight whippoorwill...Whistle on, sweet deepenerOf dark loneliness”

“April's air stirs in Willow-leaves...a butterflyFloats and balances”

“For a lovely bowlLet us arrange these flowers...For there is no rice”

“Seek on high bare trailsSky-reflecting violets...Mountain-top jewels”

“Ballet in the air...Twin butterflies until, twice whiteThey Meet, they mate”

“Summer grasses,All that remainsOf soldiers' dreams”

“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.”

“If I had the knackI'd sing likeCherry flakes falling”

“How I long to seeamong dawn flowers,the face of God.”

“Come, butterflyIt's late-We've miles to go together.”

“Come, see the trueflowersof this pained world.”

“Kareeda niKarasu no tomarikeriAki no kuretrans:On a bare branchA crow is perched -Autumn evening”

“Furi ika ya!Kawaza tobikomuMizo no oto”

“Awakened at midnightby the sound of the water jarcracking from the ice”

“The moon and sun are travelers through eternity. Even the years wander on. Whether drifting through life on a boat or climbing toward old age leading a horse, each day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.”

“Real poetry, is to lead a beautiful life. To live poetry is better than to write it.”

“Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, and the grass grows, by itself.”