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蜃気楼

by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

One autumn noon the narrator goes to the beach to see a mirage.

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Original language: JapaneseLevel: Advanced3,572 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.

一one
One
或a certain / one秋の午頃autumn afternoon僕はI東京からfrom Tokyo遊びに来たcame to visit大学生のuniversity student's / who was a university studentＫ君K (male friend)と一しょにtogether with蜃気楼をmirage見にto see出かけて行ったwent out
One fall afternoon, I went out with K, a university student visiting from Tokyo, to see a mirage.
鵠沼の海岸にon the beach at Kugenuma蜃気楼の見えることはthat a mirage can be seen誰でもanyone / everyoneもう知っているであろうprobably already knows
Everyone probably knows by now that a mirage can be seen on the beach at Kugenuma.
現にin fact僕myの's (possessive)家houseの's (possessive)女中maidなどand the like / for instanceはtopic marker逆まupside downに(adverbial marker)舟boatの(subject marker in relative clause)映ったwas reflectedのthe fact that / the oneをobject marker見sawこの間the other dayの's (possessive/linking)新聞newspaperにin出ていたhad appeared写真photoとwith / asそっくりexactly alikeですisよ(emphasis)
In fact, the maid at my house saw a boat reflected upside down and said, "It's exactly like the photo in the newspaper the other day."

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About the book

"Mirage" (Shinkirō) is a short story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, first published in the March 1927 issue of Fujin Kōron under the subtitle "S continued: By the Seaside." On an autumn afternoon, the narrator goes with a university student named K to the Kugenuma coast to look at a mirage. The work carries a strong I-novel atmosphere, and despite its brevity has drawn much critical commentary; Mishima Yukio noted that many people are, strangely, fond of it.

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.

鵠沼 History

A place name on the coast of Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture. Around 1926 Akutagawa stayed here to recuperate from illness, and this work draws on that period of his life.

新時代 History

A term fashionable in the late Taishō period, referring to the modern men and women and new trends that emerged after the First World War. Women with bobbed hair—the so-called 「断髪女」 of the time—were often seen, along with Western accessories such as Western-style umbrellas and low-heeled leather shoes, as emblems of the new modern woman.

横文字を並べた木札 Allusion

The writing on the wooden sign is not English but Esperanto: Unua Aprilo (April 1st) and Jaro (year). Esperanto was created by the Pole Zamenhof and was quite popular among Japan's educated youth from the Taishō period into the early Shōwa era.

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: 蜃気楼 (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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What level is it?

This one is marked “Advanced”. Every word is glossed, so you can keep reading even with a small vocabulary.

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English and Chinese glosses are prepared in advance; signed-in readers can generate other languages.

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