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Orchidbreathing incense into butterfly's wings

Matsuo Basho

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Matsuo Basho
Age: 50 †
Born: 1644
Born: January 1
Died: 1694
Died: November 28
Artist
Poet
Writer
Vaxjo
Matsuo Basho
Bashō
Bashô
Basho
Matsuo Bashou
Incense
Butterfly
Wings

More quotes by Matsuo Basho

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I am one who eats breakfast gazing at morning glories.
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All my friends / viewing the moon – / an ugly bunch.
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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.
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Real poetry, is to lead a beautiful life. To live poetry is better than to write it.
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Plunge Deep enough in order to see something that is hidden and glimmering.
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I felt quite at home, / As if it were mine sleeping lazily / In this house of fresh air.
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He who creates three to five haiku poems during a lifetime is a haiku poet. He who attains to completes ten is a master.
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No matter where your interest lies, you will not be able to accomplish anything unless you bring your deepest devotion to it.
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Nothing in the cry of cicadas suggests they are about to die
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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.
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An autumn night - don’t think your life didn’t matter.
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Before enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water. After enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water.
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Sabi is the color of haikai. It is different from tranquility. For example, if an old man dresses up in armor and helmet and goes to the battlefield, or in colorful brocade kimono, attending (his lord) at a banquet, [sabi] is like this old figure.
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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.
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First snow-falling-on the half-finished bridge.
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Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought.
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Felling a tree and gazing at the cut end - tonight's moon
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Friends part foreverwild geese lost in cloud
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The haiku that reveals seventy to eighty percent of its subject is good. Those that reveal fifty to sixty percent, we never tire of.
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Make the universe your companion, always bearing in mind the true nature of things-mountains and rivers, trees and grasses, and humanity-and enjoy the falling blossoms and the scattering leaves.
Matsuo Basho