Matsuo Bashō · 128 pages
Rating: (2.6K votes)
“In this mortal frame of mine which is made of a hundred bones and nine orifices there is something, and this something is called a wind-swept spirit for lack of a better name, for it is much like a thin drapery that is torn and swept away at the slightest stir of the wind. This something in me took to writing poetry years ago, merely to amuse itself at first, but finally making it its lifelong business. It must be admitted, however, that there were times when it sank into such dejection that it was almost ready to drop its pursuit, or again times when it was so puffed up with pride that it exulted in vain victories over the others. Indeed, ever since it began to write poetry, it has never found peace with itself, always wavering between doubts of one kind and another. At one time it wanted to gain security by entering the service of a court, and at another it wished to measure the depth of its ignorance by trying to be a scholar, but it was prevented from either because of its unquenchable love of poetry. The fact is, it knows no other art than the art of writing poetry, and therefore, it hangs on to it more or less blindly.”
― Matsuo Bashō, quote from Backroads to Far Towns: Basho's Travel Journal
“Searching for the scent
of the early plum,
I found it by the eaves
Of a proud storehouse.”
― Matsuo Bashō, quote from Backroads to Far Towns: Basho's Travel Journal
“Had I crossed the pass
Supported by a stick,
I would have spared myself
The fall from the horse.”
― Matsuo Bashō, quote from Backroads to Far Towns: Basho's Travel Journal
“The River Mogami has drowned
Far and deep
Beneath its surging waves
The flaming sun of summer”
― Matsuo Bashō, quote from Backroads to Far Towns: Basho's Travel Journal
“Here is a greedy man who keeps to himself
The beautiful pears ripe in his garden.”
― Matsuo Bashō, quote from Backroads to Far Towns: Basho's Travel Journal
“A bush-warbler,
Coming to the verandah-edge,
Left its droppings
On the rice-cakes.”
― Matsuo Bashō, quote from Backroads to Far Towns: Basho's Travel Journal
“The moon and sun are eternal travelers. Even the years wander on. A lifetime adrift in a boat or in old age leading a tired horse into the years, every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home. —Bashō: Oku-no-hosomichi”
― Matsuo Bashō, quote from Backroads to Far Towns: Basho's Travel Journal
“Days and months are travellers of eternity. So are the years that pass by. Those who steer a boat across the sea, or drive a horse over the earth till they succumb to the weight of years, spend every minute of their lives travelling. There are a great number of ancients, too, who died on the road. I myself have been tempted for a long time by the cloud-moving wind - filled with a strong desire to wander.”
― Matsuo Bashō, quote from Backroads to Far Towns: Basho's Travel Journal
“It is only a barbarous mind that sees other than the flower, merely an animal mind that dreams of other than the moon.”
― Matsuo Bashō, quote from Backroads to Far Towns: Basho's Travel Journal
“夏草や
兵どもが
夢の跡
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)”
― Matsuo Bashō, quote from Backroads to Far Towns: Basho's Travel Journal
Matsuo Bashō
Born place: in Matsuo Kinsaku, Japan
Born date January 1, 1644
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“When a child disappears, the space she’d occupied is immediately filled with dozens of people. And these people—relatives, friends, police officers, reporters from both TV and print—create a lot of energy and noise, a sense of communal intensity, of fierce and shared dedication to a task.
“But amid all that noise, nothing is louder than the silence of the missing child. It’s a silence that’s two and a half to three feet tall, and you feel it at your hip and hear it rising up from the floorboards, shouting to you from corners and crevices and the emotionless face of a doll left on the floor by the bed.
“It’s a silence that’s different from the one left at funerals and wakes. The silence of the dead carries with it a sense of finality; it’s a silence you know you must get used to. But the silence of a missing child is not something you want to get used to; you refuse to accept it, and so it screams at you.
“The silence of the dead says, Goodbye.
“The silence of the missing says, Find me.”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from Gone, Baby, Gone
“I do so love how all magic comes with its share of dire warnings and unclear requirements," sighed Tybalt. "It's like being on the stage, only there's no director, and the understudies have all died of typhus.”
― Seanan McGuire, quote from Ashes of Honor
“What the artist is
always looking for is the mode of existence in which soul and body are
one and indivisible: in which the outward is expressive of the inward: in
which form reveals.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from De Profundis
“Well, today is your lucky day because I’m going to let you in on a little secret. You’re about to experience firsthand how the real world of journalism operates.” We all leaned forward in our seats, straining to hear the pearls of wisdom Zimmerman was about to bestow upon us. “Listen carefully, boys and girls, because I’m only going to say this once . . . . ”
― Rachel Renée Russell, quote from Dork Diaries Book 5: Tales from a Not-So-Smart Miss Know-It-All
“Dacă ţinem doar la oamenii de înalt caracter,în cel mai scurt timp se face pustiu în jurul nostru.Trebuie să-i frecventăm şi pe cei aşa-zişi fără caracter,ca să rezistăm,ca să nu pierim spiritual.Oamenii aşa zicând de caracter sunt cei care,cu vremea doar ne plicitisesc şi ne omoară.”
― Thomas Bernhard, quote from Extinction
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