“…our queen does not smile.” | The Longhorn Beetle — Kyūsaku Yumeno | Audiobook

At dusk, in a paulownia grove, a longhorn beetle moves its long antennae and receives, from the edge of the sky, a melody returning from long ago: a song about Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, bored beyond bearing in her royal bedchamber, and about a little beetle. This is “The Longhorn Beetle” (「髪切虫」), a strange short tale by Kyūsaku Yumeno (1889–1936), first published in 1936. Its Egypt is a fantasy, not history. Japan Lit Lantern reads it aloud in a new English translation. Viewer note: a fantasy that dwells on hair, bodies and bald heads, with a queen’s frank desires; it is fiction, and the pictures show none of it. The original contains expressions of its time that may be considered inappropriate today. They are translated faithfully as part of the work. Japan Lit Lantern brings Japanese classics into English: newly translated, read aloud, and illustrated. Subscribe for the next story. Credits Original work: 「髪切虫」 (The Longhorn Beetle) by Kyūsaku Yumeno (夢野久作, 1889–1936), first published in 1936 English translation: Japan Lit Lantern (new translation) Narration: AI voices (Google Cloud Text-to-Speech) Illustrations: AI-generated with Krea 2 Turbo (LoRA “Aesthetic Quality Modifiers – Masterpiece” by motimalu) Thumbnail and opening image: created with OpenAI image generation Ending jingle made with Suno. Ending card made with ChatGPT. Japanese source text: Aozora Bunko, card no. 1121 (file 1121_22004.html, input: 柴田卓治; proofreading: kazuishi), based on 『夢野久作全集3』 (ちくま文庫, 筑摩書房, 1992) https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000096... Aozora Bunko card data is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Aozora Bunko is not affiliated with this video. English translation, narration and video © 2026 Japan Lit Lantern. No rights are claimed in Yumeno’s original Japanese text. #JapaneseLiterature #JapaneseShortStory #Audiobook