The verse

Lay not your bridge upon the rushing spring,Stone after pile, through nights of patient toil;Deep waters bear what stands a thousand years,While rapids drown the bridge of floating reeds.

Reading

A fortune of quiet promise: sink your piles before you span the water. Roots set deep make a bridge that holds; haste upon a single tide makes a bridge of reeds. The labor is yours; whether any cross it rests with heaven and humankind.

The temple keeper adds

A kind sign. The god nodded — small, but real.

[ Draw another at the temple ][ Keep a traffic omamori ]