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月夜のでんしんばしら

by Kenji Miyazawa

On a moonlit night, Kyoichi sees telegraph poles marching and singing.

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Original language: JapaneseLevel: Beginner3,425 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.

ある晩one evening恭一はKyoichi (topic marker)ぞうりをはいてput on sandals andすたすたbriskly鉄道線路の横のbeside the railway tracks平らなところをalong the flat groundあるいて居りましたwas walking
One evening, Kyoichi put on sandals and walked quickly along the flat place beside the railway tracks.
たしかにsurelyこれthisはtopic marker (as for)罰金fine (penalty)ですis (polite copula)
This is surely a fine.
おまけにwhat's moreもしif汽車trainがsubject markerきてhad come (and)窓windowからfrom長いlong棒poleなどsomething likeがsubject marker出ていたらhad been sticking out一ぺんにat onceなぐり殺されてbe beaten to deathしまったwould have ended upでしょうprobably / would
And if a train had come and a long pole had stuck out of the window, you would have been beaten to death at once.
ところがhoweverそのthat晩eveningはas for (topic marker)線路見まわりの工夫railway track maintenance workerもeither (not)こずdid not come窓からfrom the window棒の出たwith a pole sticking out汽車にもnor a trainあいませんでしたdid not encounter
But that evening, no railway worker came to check the tracks, and he did not meet a train with a pole sticking out of the window.

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About the book

"The Telegraph Poles on a Moonlit Night" is a fairy tale by Kenji Miyazawa, included in his collection "The Restaurant of Many Orders". It tells of Kyōichi, who on a moonlit night sees telegraph poles marching in a line, singing. The story compares the endless row of poles to an army on the march, an allegory flavored with the early days of electricity and telecommunication.

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.

線路見まわりの工夫 Social role

「工夫」 is an old term for railway track inspectors and maintenance workers, who were responsible for patrolling and repairing the rails along the line.

エボレット Customs

A transliteration of "epaulette," the ornamental shoulder piece of old-style military uniforms. Here the telephone pole is personified as a soldier, and the insulators on its crossarm (うで木) are compared to epaulettes.

でんしんばしら Customs

「電信柱」: wooden poles for stringing telegraph and telephone wires. After the Meiji Restoration, the telegraph network spread rapidly across Japan, and rows of telephone poles along the roads became a new feature of the modern Japanese landscape.

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: 月夜のでんしんばしら (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 “Beginner”. 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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