ねずみと猫
Despite precautions, mice invade the new house, and a cat arrives.
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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 text describes how the narrator, despite expressly asking the builder to keep mice out of a new house, finds that mice still get in after a few months and begin gnawing and making noise at night, leading him to weigh countermeasures and, per the summary, to get a cat. It reads as a light, rambling first-person account of a household nuisance, drifting into offhand musings about builders, architecture, and even mice's supposed rights.
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.
A trendy expression from the late Meiji to Taishō periods, derived from the English 'high collar'. It originally referred to a fashionable style of dress with a high-collared Western suit, and by extension came to describe an attitude of admiring the West and pursuing a modern lifestyle, with a slightly mocking tone.
Thin iron chopsticks used for handling fire, kept beside the sunken hearth or brazier, and an everyday utensil in old Japanese households. Here someone casually picks up a rat with fire chopsticks, showing that braziers and hearths were still in common domestic use at the time.
In traditional Japanese architecture, a horizontal timber running between pillars, positioned above the door lintel. The gap between it and the wall often served as a typical hiding place for rats in old-style houses.
About the author
Torahiko Terada (November 28, 1878 – December 31, 1935) was a Japanese physicist and author born in Tokyo, who served as a professor at Tokyo Imperial University and conducted research at RIKEN and the Earthquake Research Institute. He studied literature under Natsume Sōseki, wrote under the pseudonym Fuyuhiko Yoshimura, and is best known for his numerous essays on topics ranging from science to manga.
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.
Do I need to pay or sign up?
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.