fortunetelling slip

神社は外国人観光客を呼び込むために外国語の表記を増やすなどの努力をしています。

Shinto shrines hoping luck in many languages attract tourists

Foreign visitors can count themselves lucky, or perhaps unlucky, that from now on at many Shinto shrines in Japan they will be able to read a fortunetelling slip in their native languages.

With nearly 20 million tourists flooding into Japan annually, the shrines are starting to translate what are called "omikuji" into various languages.

"Excellent luck! Yeah!" roared John Fitzhugh when he unraveled a slip and read his fortune in English at a shrine in Kanagawa Prefecture.

"With a positive mind, you will be able to overcome any difficulties," was also written on his omikuji.

Fitzhugh, 36, from the United States, said it was fun to draw out and read the omikuji at Enoshimajinja shrine in Fujisawa, which was bustling with tourists in the middle of July.

Shrines offer multilingual "omikuji"

Other than in English, the fortunes at Enoshimajinja are translated in Chinese--traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese--and Korean.

This form of fortunetelling is beginning to be offered in many shrines across Japan. There are generally six levels of luck that you may pick out. The best is known as "daikichi" in Japanese, which translates into English as "excellent luck." Other translations are "good luck” for "kichi,” "uncertain luck" for "suekichi" and "bad luck” for "kyo."

The slips include such details as business fortune, whether the recipient will locate a lost item and also, of course, how lucky they will be in relationships.

以下省略

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201609280001.html

今回注目した表現は、“fortunetelling slip”です。『ウィズダム英和辞典』(第３版、三省堂)を引いたところ、“fortunetelling”は「占い」、“slip”は「小さな[細長い]紙[用紙]」とありました。これらの意味から、“fortunetelling slip”で「おみくじ」という意味になります。

おみくじには大吉や凶などの運勢がありますが、記事の中ではそれらの訳についても触れられています。末吉を何と表現するか見当がつきませんでしたが、記事では“uncertain luck”と表現されていました。他の運勢についても記事の中で触れられているので、ご覧になってみてください。(Blue Sky)