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アグニの神

by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

In Shanghai an Indian fortune-teller keeps a young girl captive.

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Original language: JapaneseLevel: Intermediate3,525 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.

一one
One
支那のChina's (historical term)上海のShanghai's或町a certain townですit is
It is a town in Shanghai, China.
昼でもeven at noon薄暗いdim或家の二階にon the second floor of a certain house人相の悪いugly-looking印度人の婆さんがan old Indian woman一人one (person)商人らしいmerchant-like一人の亜米利加人とwith an American何かsomething頻にbusily話し合っていましたwas talking together
On the second floor of a house that was dark even at noon, an ugly Indian old woman was talking busily with an American man who looked like a merchant.
実はactually今度もthis time too / againお婆さんにto the old woman占いをa reading (fortune-telling)頼みに来たcame to ask (for)のだがねyou see / I must say (explanatory, softening)
"Actually, I have come again to ask you for a reading, old woman—"

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About the book

Agni no Kami is a short story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, published in the magazine Akai Tori in 1921. The title refers to Agni, the fire god in Hinduism. The opening is set in a dark building in Shanghai, where an old Indian woman divines with the god Agni and a girl is kept inside.

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.

日米戦争はいつあるか History

From around the time of the Russo-Japanese War through the Taishō period, friction between Japan and the United States over immigration issues and dominance in the Pacific continued unabated, and the idea that "Japan and America would inevitably go to war" was a topic widely discussed in Japanese society at the time. Having an American merchant ask about the date of the outbreak of war draws precisely on this contemporary background of public opinion.

書生 Social role

From the Meiji period to the early Shōwa period, this referred to a young man who lodged in an employer's household, doing odd jobs while pursuing his studies; his position lay somewhere between a servant and a disciple. Here Endō uses it of himself, showing that he was not a正式 diplomat.

貰い子 Customs

In Japanese this means a child taken in or bought to be raised, and unlike adoption in the legal sense, it carries a colloquial nuance of "taking someone else's child in." The old woman uses it to deny that the girl is Taeko.

About the author

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (1 March 1892 – 24 July 1927), also known by his art name Chōkōdō Shujin, was a Japanese writer active in the Taishō period who is regarded as the "father of the Japanese short story". He died by suicide at the age of 35 through an overdose of barbital, and Japan's premier literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, is named after him.

Summary prepared with AI from Wikipedia: アグニの神 (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 “Intermediate”. 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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