English Translation of “Lemon” by Kajii Motojirō （梶井基次郎の「檸檬」という小説の英訳 ）

This is a modern English language translation of Kajii Motojirō’s short story “Lemon” that I undertook.　It is a story about a man who has fallen on hard times, but despite it all he retains his ability to find beauty in the most unusual places. In particular, he chances to find a lemon which is indescribably perfect, and the very act of holding it soothes him inexplicably. The protagonist’s final action of leaving this lemon on a pile of books in Maruzen (a high-quality book and stationary store) was so unusual and inspiring that it triggered a series of similar incidents amongst students who read this short story and wanted to replicate this act of defiance. This story is a classic and is widely used in school textbooks in Japan.

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