Cast & Chart

Omikuji lot 38 of 100

Moonlight on Heaven's Letter

半吉 Han-kichi, Half good fortune

月照天書靜

雲生霧彩霞

久想離庭客

無事惹咨嗟

The moon shines on a heavenly writ, and all is quiet.

Clouds give rise to mist and colored haze.

Long thinking of the guest who left the courtyard,

sighs rise with nothing to cause them.

What this lot says

Moonlight falls quietly on a document from heaven. Cloud thickens into mist and painted haze. Someone has been thinking for a long while about a visitor who went away, and sighing has begun for no stated reason.

Han-kichi, Half good fortune, is the book's printed grade, and printings differ widely, with another giving Kyo, Bad fortune. The scene is lovely and uneasy in equal parts, so the disagreement is easy to picture.

In the everyday world of now, this resembles a calm evening with an old absence at the edge of it. What are the sighs in your own day actually about?

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

No differences from the 1684 printing are recorded for this lot.

Marginal note as printed: 大本作凶

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.