仙人
An Osaka servant longs to become a hermit and finds a strange teacher.
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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.
About the book
"The Hermit" (Sennin) is a short story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, classified among his fairy-tale works. It tells of a shop clerk in Osaka who longs to become an immortal, and a doctor's wife who promises to teach him. Only the opening passage is available, so little more can be said.
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.
Since the early modern period, a generic name for a country servant in Japanese popular literature, like "John Doe." Because hired cooks were often nameless countrymen, they came to be called Gonosuke.
An employment agency of the Edo to Meiji periods that found jobs such as hired hands and maids for people, charging a commission. Job seekers had to lift the curtain and step inside to talk with the proprietor, which is why Gonosuke "passes through the curtain" in the text.
Chigusa is a cotton cloth with small white patterns on an indigo ground, worn mostly by manual labourers and servants. Habaki are long gaiter-like trousers, wide at the waist and narrow at the legs, worn under the kimono.
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: 仙人 (小説) (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.
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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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