蜘蛛の糸
The Spider’s Thread
The Buddha lowers a spider’s thread to a sinner in hell.
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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 Spider's Thread is a short story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, first published in 1918 in the children's magazine Akai Tori. The Buddha, beside a lotus pond, sees a sinner in hell and, remembering that the man once spared a spider, lowers down a silver thread. The narration is gentle, making it a good entry point for approaching the original Japanese text.
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.
Refers to Shakyamuni Buddha. Whenever the narrator mentions the Buddha, he consistently uses the highest honorific forms such as「御～様」,「御～になる」, and「いらっしゃる」, and the whole story ends sentences with「ございます」, so it reads like a Buddhist tale told to children. This tone is very hard to preserve in translation.
The Land of Supreme Happiness is the Western Pure Land of Amitabha Buddha in Buddhism. In this Pure Land, the lotus pond is where those reborn there are born from lotus blossoms, and the lotus is a classic image of the Pure Land. That is why Akutagawa lavishes description on the white lotuses, their golden stamens, and their fragrance.
In Buddhist legend, the river that the dead must cross. Depending on the weight of their sins in life, there are three ways across—by bridge, by wading through the shallows, or by fording the deep—which is why it is called the "Three Crossing" river. In Japanese folk belief it is often counted, along with the Mountain of Needles and the Pool of Blood, as part of the scenery of hell.
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: 蜘蛛の糸 (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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