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Sick on a journey,
my dreams wander
the withered fields.

— Matsuo Bashō

旅に病で
夢は枯野を
かけ廻る
tabi ni yande
yume wa kareno wo
kake-meguru

Original text (Japanese)

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Notes from Wikiquote

Bashō's last poem, written while he was dying of a stomach illness. (Translation: Robert Hass) | Basho, On Love and Barley: Haiku of Basho, London, 1985, p. 81 (Translation: Lucien Stryk) | Travelling, sick My dreams roam On a withered moor. | (Unknown translator) | Reported as Basho's death poem.

Topics

Dreams

More quotes by Matsuo Bashō

Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.

Oku no Hosomichi - The Narrow Road to the Interior (1702)

Seek not the paths of the ancients; Seek that which the ancients sought.

I am one
Who eats his breakfast,
Gazing at morning glories.

The haiku that reveals seventy to eighty percent of its subject is good. Those that reveal fifty to sixty percent, we never tire of.

It was a rainy day when I crossed over the Hakone Barrier, and all the mountains were veiled in clouds.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Matsuo Bashō (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.