“Why so scrawny, cat? / Starving for fat fish or mice… / Or backyard love?” ―Matsuo Bashō

Haiku-san
Zazen Samurai
Brush master

“How admirable!
to see lightning and not think
life is fleeting”
―Matsuo Bashō

Stick of ink
Dry as ancestors
Monsoon melts

“It has rained enough
to turn the stubble on the field
black”
―Matsuo Bashō

In ink well
Raindrops pelt dry stick
Nacre slick

“Ungraciously, under
a great soldier’s empty helmet,
a cricket sings”
―Matsuo Bashō

Ink brush dips
Splatting dashing tracks
Sticking fast

“The oak tree:
not interested
in cherry blossoms”
―Matsuo Bashō

Martial arts
Surrender to brush
Master bows

First winter rain –
even the monkey
seems to want a raincoat
―Matsuo Bashō

Dedicated to the seminal arts of Japan’s Edo period—haiku (the word derived from “play verse” in Bashō’s language); “The Four Treasures of the Study” (of calligraphy, imported to Japan from China)—and to all artists, then and now, evincing old Edo’s aesthetic disciplines.

Drawing of Matsuo Bashō
Source: MyPoeticSide.com

The quoted translations of Bashō’s poetry (more to come in our next post) are sourced from GoodReads.com and MyPoeticSide.com.