Cast & Chart

Omikuji lot 31 of 100

The Great Fish Waiting

末吉 Sue-kichi, Good fortune later

鯤鯨未變時

且守碧潭淇

風雲興巨浪

一息過天涯

While the great fish has not yet changed,

let it keep for now to its green pool by the Qi.

Wind and cloud raise huge waves,

and in one breath it crosses to the sky's edge.

What this lot says

A vast fish stays in a jade-green pool because its change has not come. We identify it as the Kun of the Zhuangzi, an identification that is ours, and the word we take as the river Qi is uncertain. Weather then builds enormous swells, and the creature covers the whole distance in a single breath.

Waiting fills the first half and a leap fills the second, the shape of Sue-kichi, Good fortune later, which the book prints. Printings differ both in grade and in wording: one gives Kichi, Good fortune, and others read stream for the river name and heaven and earth for the sky's edge.

Moved into the present, the verse describes staying small on purpose until conditions change. How would you know the difference between waiting for your wind and simply staying in the pool?

A lot is a prompt for reflection. It cannot promise a result, and it is no substitute for medical, legal or financial advice.

The printed text

Where the 1684 printing differs

  • Line 2, character 5: 1684 printing has 淡.
  • Line 4, character 5: 1684 printing has 地.

Marginal note as printed: 大本作吉 / 百籖淇作溪下天涯亦作天地

Credits

The verse and grade were read from the two scanned printings named here. The title, translation and reading are our own and modern.

Our own English. The kana commentary printed under each verse in the old books was not read.