I’ve known about 青空文庫 for quite a while but never really had the time to look over it. It’s a large collection of free Japanese text online. The only problem is most of these writings are quite old (old enough for the copyright to expire) and to put it politely, a bit… dry.
However, I finally took some time to read a story called 「走れメロス」 by the famous author: 太宰治. You can find the version updated to modern Japanese （新字新仮名） here and also read it directly online here.
I don’t want to give too much away but 「走れメロス」 is a rather touching story about loyalty and trust. It is required reading for most Japanese students (in middle school I believe) so it’s certainly good stuff to know for cultural reasons as well. Here’s the first few lines to get you started.
メロスは激怒した。必ず、かの邪智暴虐（じゃちぼうぎゃく）の王を除かなければならぬと決意した。メロスには政治がわからぬ。メロスは、村の牧人である。笛を吹き、羊と遊んで暮して来た。けれども邪悪に対しては、人一倍に敏感であった。
かの: I haven’t run into this word before but it is apparently used to refer to something or someone else similar to 「その」. See here for more details.
邪智暴虐: While not a phrase with much practical use, examining the Kanji for the two words 邪智 and 暴虐 gives you a very good idea of its meaning: Evil+Knowledge and Violent+Tyrannize. The kanji itself are useful to know for words like 「風邪」、「邪悪」 (used in the same paragraph)、「暴力」、and 「残虐」. 「智」、 another version of 「知」 is also a great character to know for many names.
王を除かなければならぬ: The 「ならぬ」 is an old-fashioned version of 「ならない」. You’ll see a lot of 「ぬ」 instead of 「ない」 in this story since the text IS old. 「除く」 is a creative use of the word “remove” here. I leave it to the reader to interpret exactly what is meant by “removing the king”.
人一倍（ひといちばい）: This is an interesting expression to me because it means “more than others” but the math doesn’t seem to add up. If 二倍 is double, shouldn’t 一倍 be exactly the same as the original amount? Well if you consider that 一倍 is one share and 人一倍 as an extra person’s share, I guess it makes sense. It’s an expression anyway so who cares right?
Have fun with the rest of the story because it is quite long. If anybody knows of other good literature in the free 青空文庫 collection, please let me know in the coments with links!!!
Sometimes, the texts can be useful BECAUSE they are old. The first time I encountered 逢った was in a Natsume Soseki story, and I’ve seen it pop up now and again in other places, like the essay I’m reading titled 日本語のこころ (Which is a load of BS which I’ve been writing 反論 about on my lang-8.com journal).
Of course, in conversation it doesn’t matter if you know the alternate kanji 逢う for 会う, but it sure does help in literature.
I’m planning to read through 桃太郎 soon.
In the first paragraph there’s “律気” which isn’t in any of my dictionaries. Is it an old way of writing 律儀?
It sure appears that way though I don’t know if it’s old or just creative literature at work here.
From http://www.kyoikujoho.ne.jp/tekken/20011116.html
律気は律儀と同意か。それなら辞書にこうある。「義理堅い・実直なこと」。されば何とかなるか。
Certainly not common usage.
Actually, a long time ago, I tried reading Soseki’s book about cats or something on 青空文庫. Surrendered soon enough :).
Currently, I’m reading amateur novels on Bookstudio Works :). I’ll take a look at the Bunko again later.
吾輩は猫である is a very famous book but I haven’t read it either. I tried reading こころ and I just couldn’t get into it. Thanks for the link, that site looks very interesting!
gotta point out that I think 邪智=邪知 じゃち (n) knowledge applied to evil purposes
Soseki’s こゝろ is pretty good.
I’ve read some interesting essays by 二葉亭四迷 on Aozora Bunko. He was part of the avantgarde of Japanese writers who switched from the classic writing style (文語), to a writing style which more closely resembled spoken Japanese (言文一致). He wrote an essay about 言文一致 called 余が言文一致の由來 and an informing essay about the development of a world language called エスペラントの話. Also good was his essay on translation standards titled 余が翻訳の標準.
Thanks for that, I’ll be sure to check it out sometime.
I started reading オシャベリ姫 because it had a funny title, and so far it’s been quite good.
My skill level is quite poor (Just 3 semesters of Japanese) but the story is surprisingly easy to read.
There are places where I get confused and have no idea what’s going on, but no more so than modern Japanese literature.
Plus the story is really fun which helps with motivation.
Thanks, I’ve only skimmed it but so far it looks great for Japanese learners! Lots of dialogue and and pretty straight-forward grammar.