Natsu-kusa ya!
Tsuwamono-domo ga
Yume no ato.
—Basho
You summer grasses!
Glorious dreams of great warriors
Now only ruins.
This poem was composed as Basho sat and wept over the grass-
covered remains of Takadate Casde, the headquarters of the great
Fujiwara clan. The glories of yesterday too soon are forgotten and
become the ashes or weed-covered remains of today.