Dysentery and Footprints

A village has fallen under the shadow of dysentery. Police conduct compulsory examinations, families hide their sick, and a timid preacher discovers that fear can bring new believers. As his confidence grows, the distance between his promises and the suffering around him becomes harder to ignore.

In Footprints, a young village teacher commands the devotion of his pupils and the admiration of a woman colleague. Yet his household lives on an inadequate salary, his literary ambitions have met rejection, and his planned resignation offers no clear escape. Ishikawa Takuboku observes these lives with an unsparing eye for poverty, pride, dependence, and self-deception.

First published in 1909, these works show another side of a writer best known for poetry. This complete English translation includes concise notes on historical terms, uncertain readings, and printed inconsistencies. It preserves all three supplied entries: Dysentery followed by two identical, complete occurrences of Footprints. AI-assisted translation.