LightNovelLingo
Home / Library / Japanese / The Smile of the Gods

神神の微笑

The Smile of the Gods

by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

A Jesuit missionary in Kyoto senses the power of Japan’s old gods.

Read this book free →

Original language: JapaneseLevel: Advanced3,595 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.

ある春の夕one spring eveningPadreOrgantinoPadre Organtino (name)はtopic markerたった一人all alone長いlongアビト法衣abito (robe)のpossessive/modifying particle裾hemをobject marker引きながらwhile pulling/trailing南蛮寺の庭the garden of the Nanban templeをpath marker歩いていたwas walking
One spring evening, Padre Organtino walked alone in the garden of the southern temple, pulling the hem of his long robe.
庭にはin the garden松や檜の間にamong the pines and cypresses薔薇だのroses and the like橄欖だのolives and the like月桂だのlaurels and the like西洋の植物がWestern plants植えてあったhad been planted
In the garden, among pines and cypresses, roses, olives, and laurels—Western plants—were planted.
殊にespecially咲き始めたhad begun to bloom薔薇の花はthe roses (as for the rose flowers)木々をthe trees (object)幽かにするmake dim/faint夕明りの中にin the evening light薄甘いfaintly sweet匂をscent (object)漂わせていたwas giving off / letting drift
Especially the roses that had begun to bloom gave off a faint sweet scent in the evening light that made the trees dim.
それはit (topic)この庭の静寂にto the stillness of this garden何かsome kind of日本とは思われないthat one would not think of as Japanese不可思議な魅力をa mysterious charm添えるようだったseemed to add
It seemed to add to the stillness of the garden some strange charm that did not seem like Japan.

Read free →

About the book

The Smile of the Gods is a short story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, published in Shin-Shōsetsu in 1922 and part of his Christian-themed works. It tells of the missionary Organtino, who learns from the gods of Japanese mythology about the Japanese trait of building a distinctive culture on borrowed foreign influences. Framed as a kind of study of the Japanese character, it is a notable example of Akutagawa's writing on this theme.

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.

南蛮寺 History

A popular name for the Catholic church established by the Jesuits in Kyoto at the end of the sixteenth century, so called because Japanese at the time called Europeans "Namban-jin" (southern barbarians). The Kyoto Namban-ji was built around 1576 and for a time served as a missionary centre under the protection of Oda Nobunaga.

Bacchanalia Allusion

A Roman festival in honour of Bacchus, the god of wine, in which participants drank, sang, danced, and gave themselves over to pleasure. The author borrows this classical Western term to describe the Shinto revelry unfolding before him in Japan.

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: 神神の微笑 (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.

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 “Advanced”. 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 →