(1644 - 1694 / Iga Province / Japan)

poet Matsuo Basho
#70 on top 500 poets

Quotations

  • ''Refinement's origin:
    the remote north country's
    rice-planting song.''
    Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), Japanese poet. (untitled haiku), Trans. by Bernard Lionel Einbond, in Cicada I, No. 4 (Winter 1977).
    86 person liked.
    		35 person did not like.
  • ''Clouds now and again
    give a soul some respite from
    moon-gazing—behold.''
    Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), Japanese poet. (untitled haiku), Trans. by Bernard Lionel Einbond, in Cicada I, No. 4 (Winter 1977).
    94 person liked.
    		32 person did not like.
  • ''The summer grasses:
    of mighty warlords' visions
    all that they have left.''
    Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), Japanese poet. (untitled haiku), Trans. by Bernard Lionel Einbond, in Cicada I, No. 4 (Winter 1977).
    64 person liked.
    		25 person did not like.
  • ''On my travels, stricken—
    my dreams over the dry land
    go on roving.''
    Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), Japanese poet. (untitled haiku), Trans. by Bernard Lionel Einbond, in Cicada I, No. 4 (Winter 1977). This haiku is known as Basho's "death haiku."
    66 person liked.
    		25 person did not like.
  • ''An old pond—
    a frog tumbles in—
    the sound of water.''
    Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), Japanese poet. (Untitled haiku), Trans. by Bernard Lionel Einbond, appearing in One Hundred Frogs by Hiroaki Sato, New York & Tokyo: Weatherhill (1983).
    21 person liked.
    		5 person did not like.
  • ''Cooling, so cooling,
    with a wall against my feet,
    midday sleep—behold.''
    Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), Japanese poet. (untitled haiku), Trans. by Bernard Lionel Einbond, in Cicada I, No. 4 (Winter 1977).
    16 person liked.
    		3 person did not like.

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Moonlight slanting

Moonlight slanting
through the bamboo grove;
a cuckoo crying.


Translated by Robert Hass

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