Cast & Chart

Omikuji lot 51 of 100

Soaring to the High Branch

吉 Kichi, Good fortune

修進甚功奇

勞生未得時

騰身遊碧漢

方得遇高枝

Cultivation and progress, remarkable in their effort;

a toiling life has not yet found its hour.

Lifting the body to roam the blue heavens,

only then does one come upon the high branch.

What this lot says

Someone has worked hard at self-improvement, and the labor is impressive, yet the right moment has stayed out of reach. Then the figure rises into the blue sky and travels there. Only after that flight does the high branch appear.

The book prints Kichi, Good fortune, for this lot. The last two lines suit that grade, with effort that had found no opening lifting off the ground and reaching a perch. The toil of the first half stays in view, so the good here arrives after a long wait.

Read today, this could describe someone with years of steady practice and little to show for it so far. What would it mean for that person to look for the next perch from somewhere other than the ground they have been working?

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.

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.