桜の実の熟する時
Young Sutekichi picks up a cherry and tastes the dreams of youth.
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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 opens with the young man Kishimoto Sutekichi picking up a cherry and savoring its fairy-tale-like mood, then follows him on a slope where he unexpectedly meets Shigeko, an older woman he has spent over a year deliberately avoiding. The narration lingers on small moments—hiding by a roadside mulberry tree, listening to the rickshaw wheels pass behind him—and reads as quiet and restrained, tinged with the mingled happiness and bewilderment of youth.
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.
A jinrikisha (rickshaw). A common means of transport in Tokyo in the Meiji and Taishō periods, with one man pulling the vehicle and the passenger riding in it. Here "カタ、コト" is the sound of the wheels striking stones and of the puller's footsteps.
An affectionate form of address for a woman named Shigeko. "お＋name＋さん" is an honorific way of addressing a familiar woman; this form of address hints at the two people's past closeness.
Before the Meiji era, free socialising between unmarried men and women was strictly restricted, and marriages were usually arranged through go-betweens. Young men and women students associating freely in and out of school was a new custom that spread in the mid-Meiji period along with Western-style education, especially at Christian schools, and it was still controversial in society at the time.
About the author
Tōson Shimazaki (25 March 1872 – 22 August 1943), the pen-name of Haruki Shimazaki, was a Japanese writer active in the Meiji, Taishō and early Shōwa periods. He began his career as a Romantic poet but went on to establish himself as a major proponent of Japanese Naturalism, and his most popular work is the historical novel Before the Dawn (1929–1935), about the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate.
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 “Advanced”. 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.