夏
A physicist strolls a department store on a scorching afternoon.
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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 begins with the experience of walking through a department store on a hot summer afternoon, where the displayed goods, spinning fans and passing crowds evoke a dreamlike world, and goes on to imagine the department store as a place where knowledge could also be casually bought. It reads in a leisurely, conversational tone, with concrete observations giving way to loosely unfolding ideas.
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.
Debussy's orchestral Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, based on Mallarmé's poem, depicts a faun who, half-dreaming through a languid afternoon, glimpses nymphs. Using the imagery of faun, nymphs and bees, the author likens the department store to a mythic dreamworld.
A Japanese-made loanword for 'tourist bureau', an agency that handles travel arrangements such as train tickets and hotel bookings. In the text it appears alongside the barbershop and the post office as one of the author's examples of what the department store 'encompasses everything'.
見合い is the traditional Japanese arranged meeting between prospective marriage partners, set up by a go-between. In that era, new public spaces such as department stores became common venues for these meetings—respectable and neutral, where one could shop and chat at the same time.
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.