“Sabi is the color of haikai. It is different from tranquility. For example, if an old man dresses up in armor and helmet and goes to the battlefield, or in colorful brocade kimono, attending (his lord) at a banquet, [sabi] is like this old figure.”
“[Japanese haiku poets found something morose in the sound, an omen of the cicada's short adult life.] In the cicada's cry, ... no sign can foretell how soon it must die.”
