夜の蘭 香にかくれてや 花白し yoru no ran ka ni kakurete ya hana shiroshi buson 蕪村 An evening orchid, Hidden in its scent, The flower's whiteness

An evening orchid,
Hidden in its scent,
The flower's whiteness

夜の蘭香にかくれてや花白し (yoru no ran ka ni kakurete ya hana shiroshi): the orchid at night, hidden in its scent; the flower is white. 夜の蘭 is the orchid at night, 蘭 an autumn season word; 香にかくれてや is hidden in its scent, with や an exclamation at the hiding; 花白し is a plain statement, the flower is white, the one visible thing given back at the end. In the dark the scent hides the plant, and the white flower is the one thing still seen. Its first print sets it in the autumn section, after the morning-glory verses. The English follows R. H. Blyth's, from his Haiku of 1952.

Whenever I read this poem I recall an experience we had when we unknowingly purchased such an orchid. We marveled at the beautiful white flowers which stay in bloom for months. After several days though there was this strong fragrance in the evening that took over the room! After much discussion (and much sniffing) we found the source to be the orchid. Since then we talked little of the white flowers, but often of the fragrance.

Calligraphy Notes:

1) I have used a mix of hiragana and kanji to vary the look of the designs. As an example all designs use 夜 (yoru) in kanji except VD6A which uses the hiragana よる. The meaning remains the same.

Translation Notes:

夜の蘭
香にかくれてや
花白し

1) 夜 (yoru) meaning "night; evening".

2) 蘭 (ran) meaning "orchid".

3) 香 (ka) meaning "aroma; fragrance; scent; smell".

4) かくれて (kakurete) from the verb 隠れる (kakureru) meaning "to hide; to be hidden; to conceal oneself; to disappear".

5) 花 (hana) meaning "flower; blossom; bloom; petal".

6) 白し (shiroshi) from 白い (shiroi) meaning "white".

The verse is Buson's, first printed in 1784 in the 蕪村句集, the book of his verse that his pupil Kitō published for the first anniversary of his death.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 夜の蘭香にかくれてや花白し.

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Eri Takase was born and raised in Osaka, Japan, and holds the rank of Shihan, the highest rank in Japanese calligraphy, from the Bokuteki-kai and the Bunka-shodo. About Master Takase