春の夜
A nurse tells the narrator about a household she once cared for.
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Each word has its meaning in this sentence underneath, and each sentence has a full translation. Read the original and glance down only when you need to.
About the book
The text opens with a narrator recounting a story told by a nurse, N, who had cared for his brother; while she cooks porridge during his own bout of illness, she describes the Noda household in Ushigome, where she once worked, with its ailing brother and sister and a garden overrun with horsetails. The tone is calm and matter-of-fact, but it turns eerie when, walking back from buying ice at night, N is embraced from behind by someone who looks exactly like the bedridden patient Kiyotarō.
Cultural notes (selection)
Background a translation can’t carry: social roles, history and allusions. While reading, tap “Note” at the end of a sentence to see them all.
In the Taishō period, Japan had professional nurse dispatch organisations called 看護婦会, which sent nurses to patients' homes by the day or by the month to provide care. At that time, private home nursing was one of the main forms of a nurse's work, which is why N-san could be introduced through a 看護婦会 to a patient's household in Ushigome.
An extremely short haircut, about 1.5 centimetres (five bu) long. From the Meiji period onward it was commonly seen on patients, soldiers, students and boys. Here it serves as a visual marker for identifying the person and his resemblance to Seitarō.
"隠居" refers to the retired head of a household who has handed the family business over to an heir but still lives in the home and retains the head's authority. Here "女隠居" means the previous mistress of the house, who has stepped back but still manages daily affairs. That is why N-ko explains matters to her, and she responds in an interrogating tone.
About the author
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (1 March 1892 – 24 July 1927), also known by his art name Chōkōdō Shujin, was a Japanese writer active in the Taishō period who is regarded as the "father of the Japanese short story". He died by suicide at the age of 35 through an overdose of barbital, and Japan's premier literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, is named after him.
How the glosses are made
Word glosses and sentence translations are generated in context by AI models (DeepSeek and Zhipu GLM), and every word is checked to have a gloss. AI can make mistakes; you can report problems from the book page.
FAQ
Is this the original text?
Yes. The library holds the opening section of the public-domain original, taken from 青空文库.
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What level is it?
This one is marked “Intermediate”. Every word is glossed, so you can keep reading even with a small vocabulary.
Can I use another gloss language?
English and Chinese glosses are prepared in advance; signed-in readers can generate other languages.
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