Cast & Chart

Omikuji lot 83 of 100

Looking Up from Cloud's Edge

凶 Kyo, Bad fortune

舉步出雲端

高枝未可攀

昇頭看皎月

猶在黑雲間

You step out above the edge of the clouds;

the high branch still cannot be climbed.

Raising your head to see the bright moon,

it is still among the black clouds.

What this lot says

A climber gets up past the cloud line and finds that the high branch remains out of reach. The figure lifts their head to look for the white moon. It lies inside dark cloud, as it did before.

Height is gained here and nothing is given for it, which fits the printed grade in the book, Kyo, Bad fortune. Two goals appear, branch and moon, and each remains covered or beyond the hand.

Read in the present, this could be the moment after a big step when the expected view has failed to appear. What were you hoping to see from up here, and how much of that was ever about the height?

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 3, character 1: 1684 printing has 昂.

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.