Night on the Galactic Railroad — Summary and Characters
A galaxy, and true happiness
- Author
- Miyazawa Kenji
- Published
- 1934
- Genres
- Fantasy
- Length
- 38,447 characters
- Reading time
- About 1 hr 17 min
- Orthography
- Modern script and kana
About this work
Miyazawa Kenji's best-known work, a fantastical tale for children. He revised it repeatedly and never published it; it appeared after his death in the 1934 collected works. Giovanni, a lonely boy, boards a phantom train running through the Milky Way with his friend Campanella, and through the passengers they meet asks what "true happiness" might be. Kenji's religious and cosmic vision is concentrated here as nowhere else.
Summary
Giovanni's father has been long away at sea and has not come back; the boy works to support his sick mother, is teased by his classmates, and passes his days in loneliness. Only Campanella, his friend, is unchanged in his kindness. On the night of the Star Festival, on his way to fetch milk, Giovanni falls asleep on a hilltop and comes to himself aboard a strange train running through the Milky Way. Campanella is aboard as well, and together they meet passengers and pass through visions — the station at the Swan, the black hole like a picture of a dragon, a brother and sister drowned at sea and their tutor — and talk over what "true happiness" might be. But somewhere past the station at the Southern Cross, Campanella is suddenly gone. Waking alone on the hill, Giovanni runs down toward the town, and is told that Campanella, trying to save his classmate Zanelli from the river, has himself disappeared. Understanding the death that overlays what he saw on his journey through the galaxy, Giovanni runs on through the night to bring the milk and to tell his mother that his father is coming home.
Characters
- Giovanni A poor and lonely boy. The protagonist, who travels aboard the galactic railroad
- Campanella Giovanni's close friend. He vanishes partway through the journey; in fact he has drowned saving a friend in the river
- Zanelli Giovanni's classmate, saved by Campanella when he falls into the river
- The doctor Campanella's father, who appears at the end of the story
Chapter-by-chapter synopsis
The app covers this work chapter by chapter (full text in the app).
- 1. About This Work
- 2. Main Characters
- 3. Main Supporting Characters
- 4. From the Afternoon Class to the Print Shop
- 5. The Night of the Festival of the Centaurus and the Pillar of the Weather Wheel
- 6. Milky Way Station — The Swan Station
- 7. The Bird Catcher
- 8. Giovanni's Ticket — The Siblings from the Iceberg
- 9. The Scorpion's Fire and the Southern Cross
- 10. The Coal Sack — Campanella's Disappearance
- 11. The Return — Lights on the Bridge
- 12. Key Settings and Foreshadowing
The opening (original text)
"Well then, does anyone know what this dimly white thing really is, that people have called a river, or the trace of spilled milk?" The teacher pointed at the hazy white band of the galaxy running from top to bottom of the great black star chart hung on the blackboard, and put the question to them all. Campanella raised his hand. Then four or five others raised theirs. Giovanni started to raise his and quickly stopped. He had certainly read once in a magazine that they were all stars; but lately Giovanni was sleepy even in the classroom every day, and he had neither the time to read nor any books to read, and he had the feeling that he no longer properly understood anything at all.
Night on the Galactic Railroad by Miyazawa Kenji (Aozora Bunko)
The ending (original text)
"What can have happened? I had a very cheerful letter from him the day before yesterday. He ought to arrive about today. The ship must have been delayed. Giovanni — do come and play at our house with everyone tomorrow after school." And so saying, the doctor sent his gaze again toward the water downstream, where the whole galaxy lay reflected. Giovanni's heart was so full of a hundred things that he could say nothing; he left the doctor's side, and thinking only that he must hurry and bring the milk to his mother and tell her that his father was coming home, he ran at full speed along the riverbed toward the town.
Night on the Galactic Railroad by Miyazawa Kenji (Aozora Bunko)
Famous passages
But what, in the end, is true happiness?
A question at the very heart of the story, asked again and again during the night journey across the Milky Way. Miyazawa Kenji's lifelong search for what true happiness might be is distilled into this short question.
Campanella, it's just the two of us again, isn't it. Let's go on together, all the way, wherever it takes us.
Words Giovanni speaks to his friend near the end of their journey across the galaxy. Immediately after, Campanella's seat is found empty, and an eternal parting comes.
Please, the next time, use my body for the sake of everyone's true happiness.
The prayer of the Scorpion's Fire, as Campanella tells it. A wish that one's own life be used for the happiness of others names the very theme of the work.
Read the original
The original Japanese text is available at Aozora Bunko, and the app downloads the same text for its vertical-text reader.
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