Cast & Chart

Omikuji lot 88 of 100

A Root of Bitterness

凶 Kyo, Bad fortune

作事不和同

臨危更主凶

佳人生苦根

閑慮兩三重

What you do does not go in harmony;

facing danger, it points further to misfortune.

A fair one grows a root of bitterness;

idle worries pile two or three deep.

What this lot says

An undertaking goes ahead without agreement. When danger comes near, the outlook turns still worse. A beautiful person puts down a root of suffering, and empty fretting stacks up in several layers.

The book prints Kyo, Bad fortune, and the same word appears inside the verse, in line 2. All four lines name disagreement, danger or anxiety, and the poem does not step outside them.

Looking at it from today, the picture is of a shared effort that has no agreement at its base and many layers of unneeded worry on top. Which layer would be left if only the real disagreement were counted?

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.