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蚤と蚊

by Kyūsaku Yumeno

A lazy man’s nap is spoiled by a flea and a mosquito: a fable.

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Original language: JapaneseLevel: Beginner191 characters · ≈ 1 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.

夏の暑い日にon a hot summer dayなまけものがa lazy person (subject)ひるねをしておりますとwas taking a nap, and (when)蚤と蚊がfleas and mosquitoes (subject)代る代るone after anotherやって来てcame (along) and刺したりbit/stung (and)食いついたりbit into (and)しましたdid (past)
On a hot summer day, as a lazy person was taking a nap, fleas and mosquitoes came one after another and bit and stung him.
なまけ者lazy personはtopic marker怒りangerだしburst out (stem of だす)てand (te-form)
The lazy person got angry,
折角finally / after all this time (here, with a tone of complaint)ひとがsomeone (I) is... (used to present the speaker's situation with indignation)寝ているis sleepingのにeven though / when何だってwhy on earth / what forいたずらをするto play tricks (on someone)のだ(explanatory/emphatic sentence ending)
"Why do you bother me when I'm finally sleeping?"
とand (quotation/continuation particle)叱りつけscold sharply (叱りつける)ましたdid (polite past tense)
he scolded them.

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About the book

The text tells of a lazy man taking an afternoon nap who is bitten in turn by a flea and a mosquito; when he angrily scolds them, they reply that they like him precisely because he is idle, and if he wants to be left alone he should get up and work. It reads as a light, playful fable with a bit of moralizing humor.

About the author

Yumeno Kyūsaku (4 January 1889 – 11 March 1936) was a Japanese author whose pen name roughly means "a person who always dreams"; his real name was Sugiyama Yasumichi. He wrote detective novels and also worked as a Zen priest, post office director and sub-lieutenant, and is known for his avant-gardism and surrealistic, wildly imaginative and bizarre narratives.

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.

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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