An ink for ink jet recording contains a dye and water, a water soluble organic solvent which dissolves the dye, and 0.8 to 5 weight percent of propylene oxide/ethylene oxide block copolymer which has an average molecular weight from 1000 to 5000 and whose content of ethylene oxide group is in the range from 5 to 60 weight percent based on the average molecular weight of the block copolymer. The ink has a surface tension of 30-40 dyne/cm and a viscosity of 1-10 centipoise. An ink jet ink of this invention can be a combination of three colors, e.g., cyan, magenta and yellow, or four colors (adding black to these colors).