Cast & Chart

Omikuji lot 94 of 100

Careless Talk Over Wine

小吉 Sho-kichi, Small good fortune

事忌樽前語

人防小輩交

幸乞陰公祐

方免事敲爻

In affairs, beware of words spoken over wine;

with people, be wary of dealings with small-minded sorts.

If fortunately you beg the hidden lord's protection,

only then do you escape being knocked about by events.

What this lot says

Two warnings open the poem, one about what is said while drinking and one about keeping company with petty people. The third line asks for the protection of a hidden lord, a figure the verse does not explain. The last two characters of the fourth line are uncertain, and we read them as the knocks and blows that events can deal.

Escape from trouble is the best on offer in this poem, which suits Sho-kichi, Small good fortune, as the book prints it. Printings differ, since a note assigns Han-kichi, Half good fortune, to two other editions.

Today this could read as a caution about loose talk at social occasions and about the company one keeps. Something said in an easy moment can come back with surprising force.

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: 百籖并大本作半吉

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.