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蟹工船

The Crab Cannery Ship

by Takiji Kobayashi

Exploited workers on a crab-canning ship slowly rise up.

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Original language: JapaneseLevel: Advanced3,581 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
おいhey地獄hellさto (dialectal particle indicating direction)行ぐgo (dialectal form of 行く)んだwe're going (explanatory/copular ending)で(dialectal sentence-ending particle)
"Hey, we're going to hell!"
二人はthe two (people) / as for the twoデッキの手すりthe deck railingに寄りかかってleaning against蝸牛がa snail背のびをしたstretched itself upward / craned upようにlike / as if延びてstretching out海をthe sea抱え込んでいるis holding in / embracing函館の街をthe town of Hakodate見ていたwere looking at
The two leaned on the deck rail and looked at the town of Hakodate, stretched out like a snail pulling in its back, holding the sea in its arms.
漁夫はthe fisherman (topic)指元までdown to one's fingertips吸いつくしたsmoked down / sucked down completely煙草をthe cigarette (object)唾と一緒にtogether with spit捨てたthrew away (past)
The fisherman threw away the cigarette he had sucked down to his fingers, along with spit.

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About the book

Kani Kōsen (The Crab Cannery Ship) is a short novel by Japanese author Takiji Kobayashi, first serialized in the magazine Senki in 1929 and regarded as a landmark of proletarian literature. It has no single protagonist; instead it portrays, as a group portrait, the poor laborers brutally worked aboard a crab cannery ship and their awakening under exploitation. Though banned by government censors, it has been translated into several languages and gained international recognition.

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.

花札 Customs

A traditional Japanese card game with forty-eight cards, each month depicted with scenes such as pine, cherry blossoms, and miscanthus grass; often used for gambling.

股引 Customs

A workman's trousers worn in the style of kimono clothing, with slim legs and tightly bound ankles. Worn together with a happi (short jacket) on top, this was the typical dress of poor manual labourers in modern-era Japan.

蟇口 Customs

A 'toad-mouth' purse, so named because its opening opens and closes like a toad's mouth. Usually a small metal or leather coin purse with very little capacity.

About the author

Takiji Kobayashi (October 13, 1903 – February 20, 1933) was a Japanese writer of proletarian literature, best known for his short novel Kani Kōsen (Crab Cannery Ship), published in 1929, which depicts the hard life of cannery workers, fishermen and seamen aboard a cannery ship and the start of their revolt against the company and its managers. He died at 29 after being arrested by the Special Higher Police and subjected to violent torture.

Summary prepared with AI from Wikipedia: 蟹工船 (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.

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