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犬と笛

by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

A woodcutter’s flute wins him three magic dogs and a quest.

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Original language: JapaneseLevel: Beginner3,547 characters · ≈ 14 minSource: 青空文库

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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.

いく子さんIkuko (name, with honorific)にto (marker of recipient)献ずdedicate (literary form of 献ずる)
Dedicated to Ikuko
一one
One
昔long ago大和の国Yamato Province葛城山の麓にat the foot of Mount Katsuragi髪長彦というnamed Kamihasehiko若いyoung木樵がa woodcutter (subject)住んでいましたwas living / lived
Long ago, at the foot of Mount Katsuragi in Yamato Province, there lived a young woodcutter named Kamihasehiko.
これはthis (topic)顔かたちがhis facial features (subject)女のようにlike a womanやさしくってwas gentle, andその上moreover髪までもeven his hair女のようにlike a woman長かったwas longものですからbecause it was the case thatこういう名前をthis kind of name (object)つけられていたhad been givenのです(explanatory ending)
This was because his face was gentle like a woman's, and his hair was long like a woman's as well, so he was given this name.

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About the book

The Dog and the Flute is a short story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, published in Akai Tori in 1919. Among his children's stories it is one of his most adventure-driven works. It tells of a woodcutter on Mount Katsuragi whose flute playing earns him three divine dogs, with which he sets out to rescue a kidnapped princess.

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.

葛城山 Allusion

A mountain on the border between Nara and Osaka, which often appears as a sacred divine realm in ancient Japanese legend. Akutagawa set the story's stage on this mountain in order to create a mythic atmosphere.

嗅げ Allusion

The dog's name "嗅げ" is an imperative verb form meaning "go sniff"; likewise "飛べ" below means "fly". The divine dog is named with imperative forms, taking its name from its function.

八岐の大蛇 Allusion

From the Susanoo myth in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki: in the land of Izumo there was a great serpent with eight heads and eight tails that devoured a young girl every year, until Susanoo got it drunk and slew it. Here it is said that the shen-jin (mirage-being) once kept this serpent, emphasizing its ferocity and great antiquity.

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.

Summary prepared with AI from Wikipedia: 犬と笛 (CC BY-SA)

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.

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