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永日小品

by Natsume Sōseki

A set of short sketches, beginning on New Year’s Day.

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Original language: JapaneseLevel: Intermediate3,492 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.

元日New Year's Day
New Year's Day
雑煮をzoni soup (object)食ってeat and書斎にto the study引き取るとwhen I withdrewしばらくしてafter a while三四人three or four people来たcame
After eating zoni soup and returning to my study, a few people showed up after a while.
いずれもall of them / each one若いyoung男man / menであるwere (copula, formal)
They were all young men.
そのうちamong them / of themのof (linking particle)一人one personがsubject markerフロックfrock coatをobject marker着ているis wearing
One of them was wearing a frock coat.

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About the book

Eijitsu Shōhin is a collection of short pieces by Natsume Sōseki. It began appearing in the Asahi newspapers in January 1909, with the first piece, "Ganjitsu," published on New Year's Day and 24 pieces running in the Ōsaka Asahi through March 14. The pieces draw on everyday life as well as Sōseki's experiences during his studies in London, written in a short form reminiscent of Ten Nights of Dreams after the serialization of the novel Sanshirō.

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.

雑煮 Customs

A soup with rice cakes eaten on New Year's Day; its ingredients vary by region. It is an essential New Year food and marks the story's setting on the first day of the year.

フロック Customs

A frock coat, a Western-style formal long coat for men, worn on formal occasions in the Meiji period. In an era when kimono were the norm, a young man visiting in Western dress was itself striking, which is why everyone cries out in admiration, “やあ”.

屠蘇 Customs

A medicinal wine drunk at New Year, infused with ingredients such as sanshō pepper, cinnamon bark and bofū (saposhnikovia). On New Year's Day the whole family drinks it in order from youngest to oldest to ward off evil and pray for long life. It is a New Year custom, here used to entertain a guest.

About the author

Natsume Sōseki (9 February 1867 – 9 December 1916), born Natsume Kinnosuke, was a Japanese novelist, poet, and scholar regarded as one of the greatest writers in modern Japanese history. His major works include I Am a Cat, Botchan, Sanshirō, Kokoro, and his unfinished final novel Light and Dark.

Summary prepared with AI from Wikipedia: 永日小品 (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 “Intermediate”. Every word is glossed, so you can keep reading even with a small vocabulary.

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