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首が落ちた話

by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

In the Sino-Japanese War a soldier believes he has lost his head.

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Original language: JapaneseLevel: Intermediate3,537 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.

上above; on top
Above
何小二はHe Xiaoer (name) + topic marker軍刀をmilitary sword + object marker抛り出すとthrew down and (upon doing so)夢中でdesperately / frantically馬の頸にしto the horse's neck (part of しがみつく)がみついたclung (part of しがみついた, past tense)
He threw down his sword and held on to the horse's neck.
確かにcertainly / for sure頸をneck (object marker)斬られたwas cut (passive past)と思うthink thatいやno / ratherこれはthis (topic)しがみついたclung on / held on後でafter / afterwardそう思ったthought soのかも知れないmaybe / might be
He was sure his neck was cut—no, maybe he only thought so after he held on.
ただjust / merely何かsomething頸へinto his neckずんとwith a thud音を立ててmaking a soundはいったwent inと思うhe felt/thought thatそれと同時にat the same time as thatしがみついたのであるhe clung on
He just felt something go into his neck with a thud—and at the same time, he held on.

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About the book

This passage follows He Xiao'er, a Chinese soldier in the war, who believes his head has been cut off and clings desperately to his horse as it bolts through sorghum fields. The prose is fast-paced and disoriented, filtered through a dazed, half-conscious perception that gives the reading a vertiginous, dreamlike quality.

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.

高粱 History

Sorghum is the representative crop of Northeast China (the former Manchuria), and endless fields of sorghum are a common sight in modern Japanese literature depicting the Northeast. The geographic setting here echoes the reference to Liaodong below.

遼東 History

The Liaodong Peninsula, in the southern part of Northeast China. During the Sino-Japanese War (1894–95, called the Nichi-Shin Sensō in Japan), this was the battlefield where the Qing and Japanese armies fought.

いが栗坊主 Customs

A haircut cropped so short that the head feels like a chestnut's spiky burr. Soldiers in the prewar Japanese army often wore their hair this short, which matches the head exposed when the cavalry cap is torn.

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.

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