カインの末裔
The Descendants of Cain
A brutal tenant farmer arrives with his wife at a Hokkaido farm.
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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
Descendants of Cain is a novel by Japanese writer Takeo Arishima, sharing its title with a concept from the Old Testament concerning human origins and human sinfulness. The opening depicts the rough tenant farmer Niemon arriving with his wife at a farm on the Hokkaido wilderness. It is worth reading for how it ties this biblical theme to a rural Japanese setting.
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.
“Iburi” is the old provincial name for southwestern Hokkaidō, roughly the area of today's Iburi Subprefecture. After the Meiji period, much of this region was uncultivated wilderness, and the government encouraged settlers to move there and take up farming.
In Japanese folklore, the shirikodama is an imaginary organ inside the human body; it is said that if a kappa pulls it out through the anus, the person drowns. Here the word is used as a vulgar insult.
The 間 (ken) is a Japanese unit of length; one ken is about 1.8 metres, so seven ken is roughly twelve to thirteen metres. The text deliberately points out how wide the road is, emphasising the emptiness and desolation of the place.
About the author
Takeo Arishima (March 4, 1878 – June 9, 1923) was a Japanese novelist, short-story writer, and essayist active during the late Meiji and Taishō periods. His two younger brothers, Ikuma Arishima and Ton Satomi, were also authors, and his son was the internationally known film and stage actor Masayuki Mori.
Summary prepared with AI from Wikipedia: カインの末裔 (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.
Can I use another gloss language?
English and Chinese glosses are prepared in advance; signed-in readers can generate other languages.