Cast & Chart

Omikuji lot 67 of 100

Dead Tree, Cloud Path

凶 Kyo, Bad fortune

枯木未生枝

獨步上雲岐

豈知身未穩

獨自惹閑非

The withered tree has put out no branches;

alone you step up the forking path of cloud.

How could you know your footing is not yet firm?

All alone you stir up idle blame.

What this lot says

A dead tree shows no new growth, and one person sets off alone up a branching road into the clouds. The third line asks how that climber could have known the footing was unsteady. At the end the same solitary figure has drawn pointless blame.

A bare beginning leads straight to an exposed climb, under the grade of Kyo, Bad fortune, as the book prints it. A note and the 1684 printing show that printings differ on one word, with a ladder of cloud in place of the fork in line 2.

Viewed now, the picture suits someone who has gone ahead alone before the groundwork has grown in. What support would have to exist before a step like that stopped looking like a solo climb?

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 梯.

Marginal note as printed: 百籖岐作梯

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.