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シグナルとシグナレス

by Kenji Miyazawa

A railway signal falls in love with a little signal across the tracks.

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Original language: JapaneseLevel: Intermediate3,560 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.

ガタンコガタンコclackety-clack (train sound)シュウwhoosh (sound of steam or air)フッpuff (short breath sound)フッpuff (short breath sound)
"Clackety-clack, whoosh-whoosh,
さそりのthe scorpion's赤眼red eyeがsubject marker見えたwas seen / became visibleころaround the time when
when the scorpion's red eye was seen,
四時four o'clockからfrom / starting at今朝this morningもalso / againやって来たcame (along) / showed up
from four o'clock, it came again this morning.
遠野の盆地はthe Tono basin (topic)まっくらでpitch dark, and
The Tono basin was pitch dark,

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About the book

Signal and Signaless is a short fairy tale by Kenji Miyazawa, serialized in eleven installments in the Iwate Mainichi Shimbun in May 1923, and one of the few fairy tales he published during his lifetime. It tells of a young boy signal and a girl signal on the railway who secretly fall in love. As one of the small number of tales published while he was alive, it is worth reading.

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.

軽便鉄道 History

A small railway with a gauge of around 762 mm, widespread in the rural Tōhoku region of Japan from the late Meiji period to the early Shōwa period, used to transport timber, ore and passengers. The "light railway" in the work is set against this background.

若様 Social role

An old honorific title for the son of one's master or a young master. Here it is used by an attached signal pole to address the main-line signal machine, setting up a master–servant relationship between the two: the pole refers to itself humbly with terms such as "手前" and "やつがれ", while the signal machine is the "若様" it serves.

青い眼鏡 Customs

Early semaphore signals on railways were fitted with coloured glass lenses; "青い眼鏡" refers to the green signal lamp among them.

About the author

Kenji Miyazawa (27 August 1896 – 21 September 1933) was a Japanese novelist, poet, and children's literature writer from Hanamaki, Iwate, who also worked as an agricultural science teacher. His major works include Night on the Galactic Railroad, Kaze no Matasaburō, Gauche the Cellist, and The Night of Taneyamagahara, and his work gained its reputation mostly after his death.

Summary prepared with AI from Wikipedia: シグナルとシグナレス (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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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.

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