つる鶴のふえ笛 The Crane's Flute by はやしふみこ林芙美子 (translation: J. D. Wisgo)
はやし
林
ふみこ
芙美子
has been called one of the most important Japanese woman writers of the 20th century, and we are delighted to bring you this delightful little fairy tale, with a translation by our partner J.D. Wisgo. Although this piece is relatively short, and relatively straightforward from a grammatical and kanji usage perspective, we are presenting it here as a single reading, so it will be more challenging than some of our other pieces.We are greatly indebted to J. D. Wisgo for allowing us to use his excellent translation of this piece. You can find more stories of Hayashi Fumiko published by J.D. in this book. Also see his full lineup of books, including several other bilingual texts.
Read more about the role of cranes in Japanese literature in our Point of Interest, {poi1614}.
The source of this piece is:
Japanese: Aozora, English translation: J. D. Wisgo with permission (more information)
This text has been selected to suit reading level: Intermediate.
However, it includes some vocabulary and phrases that you would not necessarily be expected to know at that level.
We believe knowledge of such vocabulary and phrases is beneficial at any stage of Japanese language learning,
as they are commonly used in everyday language.
Many of the readings in the Reading Corner, such as this one, have additional notes in the introduction.
The notes often provide extra information that will help you get more out of the text, including links to articles in the Grammar library.
Additional notes are included with some of the individual sentences in a reading directly below the text.
