LightNovelLingo
Home / Library / Japanese / 不思議な島

不思議な島

by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

In a dream, an old Englishman on a ship points to a strange island.

Read this book free →

Original language: JapaneseLevel: Intermediate3,576 characters · ≈ 14 minSource: 青空文库

Want to read your own Japanese light novels? Read the guide →

Sample: three-line reading

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.

僕はI (topic marker)籐の長椅子a rattan couchにon (location marker)ぼんやりabsentmindedly横になっているam lying down
I am lying without aim on a long chair made of vine.
目の前にin front of my eyes欄干のあるthere is a railingところをみるとseeing that / judging from the fact thatどうもsomehow / it seems船の甲板a ship's deckらしいseems to be
Seeing a rail in front of my eyes, it seems to be a ship deck.
欄干の向うにはbeyond the railing灰色の浪にin the gray waves飛び魚か何かa flying fish or something閃いているis glinting
Beyond the rail, something like a flying fish shines in gray waves.
がbut何のためにfor what reason; why船へ乗ったかwhether/why I got on the ship不思議にもstrangely enoughそれはthat覚えていないdo not remember
But strangely, I do not remember why I got on the ship.

Read free →

About the book

The text describes a dreamlike scene aboard a ship, where an elderly Englishman in eighteenth-century dress lends the narrator an old telescope to view a strange island called SUSSANRAP, and what appears in the lens feels somehow off. It reads with the hazy, ambiguous quality of a dream, quiet but tinged with unease.

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.

ホオガスの画 Allusion

Hogarth (William Hogarth, 1697–1764) was an English painter famous for satirical series such as Marriage à la Mode. Here the reference to his paintings indicates that the old man is dressed in the attire of an eighteenth-century English gentleman.

セセッション式 History

Refers to the Vienna Secession style, which arose in Austria at the end of the nineteenth century and is characterized by geometric ornamentation and clean lines; it was close to the Art Nouveau style then popular in Japan.

ハヴァナ Customs

Havana cigars, produced in Havana, Cuba; at the time the name served as a byword for high-grade imported cigars.

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.

Do I need to pay or sign up?

Library books are free to read without an account. Other gloss languages and importing your own texts need an account and credits.

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.

More by this author

Read this book free →