Bashō - Not spilling the glistening dew, the bush clover, undulating in Japanese Calligraphy

白露をこぼさぬ萩のうねりかな shiratsuyu wo kobosanu hagi no uneri kana Bashō - Not spilling the glistening dew, the bush clover, undulating

The white dew it does not spill, the swaying of the bush clover.

白露をこぼさぬ萩のうねりかな (shiratsuyu wo kobosanu hagi no uneri kana): the white dew it does not spill, the swaying of the bush clover. 萩, hagi, is bush clover, one of the seven grasses of autumn, its long stems bending in wind; 白露 is the white dew of the same season; うねり is the long undulation of a bough; かな closes on the swaying. The poem turns on one restraint: the clover moves, and the dew still does not fall. Two early books of the verse differ by one particle. The first collection after Bashō's death, in 1696, reads 白露も, even the dew. A disciple's book of 1698 reads 白露を, the text the scroll brushes. In 1948 Ebara Taizō, the twentieth century's leading Bashō scholar, argued that を was the poet's own revision. Shiki praised the verse in 1893 as a perfect rendering of the clover's bearing, quoting it with も. Some of the designs write 白露 or 萩 in kana. The English is Timothy L. Jackowski's, made for Takase Studios.

Bashō - Not spilling the glistening dew, the bush clover, undulating (白露をこぼさぬ萩のうねりかな) in Cursive style Japanese calligraphy by Eri Takase

Bashō - Not spilling the glistening dew, the bush clover, undulating 白露をこぼさぬ萩のうねりかな shiratsuyu wo kobosanu hagi no uneri kana Vertical Cursive VC6B

Bashō - Not spilling the glistening dew, the bush clover, undulating (白露をこぼさぬ萩のうねりかな) in Design style Japanese calligraphy by Eri Takase

Bashō - Not spilling the glistening dew, the bush clover, undulating 白露をこぼさぬ萩のうねりかな shiratsuyu wo kobosanu hagi no uneri kana Vertical Design VD5B

Bashō - Not spilling the glistening dew, the bush clover, undulating 白露をこぼさぬ萩のうねりかな shiratsuyu wo kobosanu hagi no uneri kana Vertical Design VD6B

Bashō - Not spilling the glistening dew, the bush clover, undulating (白露をこぼさぬ萩のうねりかな) in Semi-Cursive style Japanese calligraphy by Eri Takase

Bashō - Not spilling the glistening dew, the bush clover, undulating 白露をこぼさぬ萩のうねりかな shiratsuyu wo kobosanu hagi no uneri kana Vertical Semi-Cursive VS6C

More about 白露をこぼさぬ萩のうねりかな

Bashō inscribed the verse on a painting of his own, by the earliest dating in the autumn of 1693 at 杉風's garden retreat 採茶庵 in Fukagawa, though a biography of 1762 sets such an inscription in Iga in 1694.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 白露をこぼさぬ萩のうねりかな.

About the Designs

Each design is Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase's hand-brushed calligraphy of the word or phrase on this page, delivered as a PDF you can print. Every PDF includes the line art, so a tattoo artist or a craftsperson can work from the outline as well as the brushed image.

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Bashō - Not spilling the glistening dew, the bush clover, undulating (shiratsuyu wo kobosanu hagi no uneri kana)

Haiku by Bashō on a traditional Japanese Scroll by Master Eri Takase.

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Bashō - Not spilling the glistening dew, the bush clover, undulating as a hand-brushed scroll

Master Takase personally brushes your scroll when you order, and it bears her red seal and her signature. The scroll has real silk borders and layered Japanese paper, so it hangs straight, and it arrives ready to display.