運が向く un ga muku Fortune Smiles

運 (un) is fortune, luck, the way things are going to fall; が (ga) marks it as the subject; 向く (muku) is to face, to turn toward, so the phrase says literally luck turns toward me, and the dictionaries define it as good luck coming one's way, circumstances turning for the better. It is spoken Japanese, an idiom of Edo fiction and the kabuki stage and later of the storyteller's hall, the line a character says when the tide of a life turns: there, my luck has turned.

The English fortune smiles is the same picture in a more literary register, luck personified and turning its face toward you, and the two match idiom for idiom, which is the truest translation a phrase like this can have. It is a hope, and a good one to hold.

運が向く is composed of the word 運 (read un) meaning "fortune; luck", the grammatical element が (read ga) which indicates the previous word is the subject, and the verb 向く (read muku) meaning "to face towards".

運が向く is Edo speech, said by a scheming samurai in Santō Kyōden's illustrated novel 長髦姿蛇柳 of 1817 and by Danshichi in Tsuruya Nanboku's kabuki 𢅻雑石尊贐 of 1823, and alive after them in Meiji fiction, rakugo and Higuchi Ichiyō.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 運が向く.

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