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丹下左膳

by Fubō Hayashi

A sword that weeps at night brings the one-eyed swordsman Sazen.

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Original language: JapaneseLevel: Advanced3,567 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.

夜泣きcrying at night (of a baby); night-cryingのof; that (linking noun to noun)刀sword
The Sword That Cries at Night
しずかにquietly更けてgrowing late / deepening (te-form)ゆくgo on (auxiliary: continues to)秋の夜autumn night
A quiet autumn night deepens.
風が出たらしくthe wind seems to have risenしめきったclosed tight雨戸にagainst the shutters時々now and thenカサwith a rustle
The wind seems to have risen; now and then, with a rustle!
と音がするto make a sound (quoted as 'a sound')のはthe one that... is (nominalizer + topic)庭の柿の病葉diseased leaves of the garden persimmonがsubject marker散りかかるfall and come brushing downのであろうit is probably because / it must be that
The sound is likely from sick leaves of the garden persimmon falling.

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About the book

Tange Sazen is a newspaper serial novel by Hayashi Fubō that was also adapted into films. Its hero, Tange Sazen, is a one-eyed, one-armed swordsman who was originally a samurai of the Sōma clan; after an attack cost him his right eye and arm, he became a rōnin. His nihilistic character proved so popular that he became a representative hero of popular fiction and period drama.

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.

根津権現 History

Nezu Gongen is the Nezu Shrine in Hongō, Edo, which enshrines Susanoo-no-Mikoto and other deities. In the Edo period the area around the shrine was a downtown quarter (shitamachi) where townspeople lived, and the author uses this setting for the location of the Onozuka dōjō.

関の孫六 Allusion

Refers to the swordsmith Magoroku Kanemoto of the Seki school in Mino. In the late Muromachi period he was famous for the "three cedar" (sanbon-sugi) blade pattern, and in the Edo period his name became a byword for fine swords.

丑満のころ Customs

The third quarter of the Hour of the Ox, around 2 a.m. In onmyōdō this was regarded as the hour when supernatural things were most likely to appear. The original text says that at this time the two swords wept together and the eaves sank three sun lower—a way of creating a ghost-story atmosphere by drawing on popular beliefs about the hours.

About the author

Fubō Hayashi (real name Kaitarō Hasegawa, 17 January 1900 – 29 June 1935) was a Japanese novelist and translator of the early Shōwa period. Writing across various genres under numerous pen names, each with a distinct personality, he caused a sensation with the brilliance of his fiction, non-fiction and translations.

Summary prepared with AI from Wikipedia: 丹下左膳 (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.

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English and Chinese glosses are prepared in advance; signed-in readers can generate other languages.

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