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水仙月の四日

by Kenji Miyazawa

Snow spirits find a lost child in a blizzard.

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Original language: JapaneseLevel: Intermediate3,557 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.

雪婆んごSnow Woman (name)はtopic marker遠くfar awayへtoward出かけてhaving set out居りましたwas (away) / had been
Snow Woman had gone out far away.
猫のようなcat-like耳earsをもちhaving (ears)ぼやぼやしたfuzzy灰いろのgray-colored髪hairをしたhaving (hair)雪婆んごはSnow Woman (topic)西のwestern山脈のof the mountain rangeちぢれたtwistedぎらぎらのglittering雲cloudsを越えてcrossing over遠くへfar awayでかけていたのですhad set off (explanatory)
Snow Woman, with her cat-like ears and fuzzy gray hair, had gone far away over the twisted, shiny clouds of the western mountains.
ひとりの子供がa child赤い毛布にくるまってwrapped in a red blanketしきりにカリメラのことを考えながらwhile thinking hard about Karimera大きな象の頭のかたちをしたshaped like a big elephant's head雪丘の裾をalong the foot of a snow hillせかせかうちの方へbusily toward home急いで居りましたwas hurrying
A child wrapped in a red blanket, thinking hard about Karimera, was hurrying busily home along the foot of a snow hill shaped like a big elephant's head.
そらlook; hey新聞紙をnewspaper (object)尖ったpointedかたちにinto a shape巻いてroll andふうふうとwith a puff-puff吹くとwhen you blow炭からfrom the charcoalまるでas if; just like青火がblue fire (subject)燃えるburns
(Look — roll newspaper into a pointed shape and blow puff-puff, and blue fire burns right from the charcoal.

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About the book

"The Fourth Day of the Month of Narcissus" is a fairy tale by Kenji Miyazawa, included in his only collection published during his lifetime, "The Restaurant of Many Orders." In the story, the Snow Woman and snow children encounter a lost child amid a blizzard. The tale follows this meeting in the snowstorm, showing the imaginative quality typical of Miyazawa's fairy tales.

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.

カリメラ Customs

Caramel candy, made by boiling sugar (raw or coarse sugar in the original text) with water, then frothing it with baking soda and letting it set. From the Taishō to early Shōwa era it was an everyday treat for Japanese children, often made at home in a small pot.

カシオピイア Allusion

Cassiopeia, a conspicuous W-shaped constellation in the northern sky on autumn and winter nights. The Snow Child calls out to the star, invisible in the sky above him, telling it to turn the waterwheel.

アンドロメダ Allusion

Andromeda, the constellation just south of Cassiopeia. In Greek myth, the princess Andromeda was the daughter of Cassiopeia, queen of Ethiopia.

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: 水仙月の四日 (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.

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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