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坑夫の子

by Yoshiki Hayama

At a deep power-station dig, a miner’s child faces the danger.

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Original language: JapaneseLevel: Intermediate3,583 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.

発電所のof the power station掘鑿はthe digging (topic)進んだwent forward
The digging of the power station went forward.
今はもうnow / already水面下below the water surface五十尺fifty feet (a unit of length)に及んだhas reached (and is now at)
Now it has already reached fifty feet below the water surface.
三台のポムプthe three pumpsはtopic marker昼夜間断なくday and night without a breakモーターをthe motor (object)焼く程to the extent that it would burn働き続けていたkept working
The three pumps kept working day and night without a break, so much that the motor would burn.
掘鑿diggingのof (linking particle)坑夫minersはas for (topic particle)今やnow昼夜day and night兼行working continuously (day and night)であったwas (copula, past tense)
The digging miners now worked day and night.

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About the book

The passage describes excavation work for a power station, where blasting shakes nearby farmhouses and complaints pass down a chain of officials until they land on the miners. In a blizzard, workers are still driven by deadlines and bonuses, giving the text a bleak, concrete feel of labor at the site.

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.

沢庵漬の重石程な岩石 Customs

Takuan-zuke is a traditional Japanese pickled daikon radish. When pickling it, a heavy weight (omoshi) is placed on top of the barrel—a common sight on farms. The author uses this everyday object to convey how large the flying rock is.

組から親方には三万円の賞与 Social role

Since the Meiji era, the construction and mining industries widely used a layered subcontracting (ukenai) system: company—kumi (contracting gang)—oyakata (foreman)—miners, with rewards and penalties apportioned down each level. The chain of responsibility described earlier, "kumi'in → meiginin → shiteuke → sewayaku," is a portrait of exactly this structure.

鶏冠山砲台 Allusion

This refers to the Russian fortress on East Kikwan (Dongjiguanshan) Hill during the siege of Port Arthur (1904–05) in the Russo-Japanese War. Japanese forces stormed the fortress using mine tunnels and explosives, suffering enormous casualties—an event well known to people of the time. The author likens the power of the blasting on the worksite to it.

About the author

Yoshiki Hayama (March 12, 1894 – October 18, 1945) was a Japanese author associated with the Japanese proletarian literature movement. He is best known for his 1926 novel Men Who Live on the Sea, about appalling labor conditions on a cargo ship, and for the 1925 short story The Prostitute, an early example of proletarian literature in Japan.

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.

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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