This story throws so many new words and kanji at you in even one sentence that I can't do much more than one sentence at a time.
Sentence:
この極楽の蓮池の下は、丁度地獄の底に当たって居りますから、水晶のような水を透き徹して、三途の河や針の山の景色が、丁度覗き眼鏡を見るように、はっきりと見えるのでございます。
このごくらくのはすいけのしたは、ちょうどじごくのそこにあたっておりますから、すいしょうのようなみずをすきとおして、さんずのかわやはりのやまのけしきが、ちょうどのぞきめがねをみえるように、はっきりとみえるのでございます。
Vocabulary
- 地獄 means Naraka, the Buddhist hell realm
- 当たる means a lot of different things; the main one is "to be hit, to strike"
- 水晶 means "crystal" or "quartz"
- 透き徹す means "to be visible through, to see through"
- 三途の河 means "Sanzu River" or "the River of Three Crossings." This is the Japanese equivalent of the river Styx from Greek mythology.
- 針の山 means "hell's mountain of needles," another Buddist concept
- 景色 means "scene, landscape, scenery"
- 覗き眼鏡 means either "peep show" but also "hydroscope" meaning "something with a glass bottom for viewing underwater." 眼鏡 means "glasses, spectacles."
- はっきり is an adverb meaning "clearly, plainly, distinctly"
- 見える means "to be visible."
Kanji
As in previous sentences, a lot of kanji are unusual, outdated kanji variants. For example, the kanji 河 is a now-unusual variant of 川, the typical kanji for "river."
In this particular sentence, almost all kanji are high-level (N1 or N2) and occur in very few common words, 23 being the highest number.
Grammar
It's a long sentence, but the grammar is not very hard. Remember that the のでございます at the end is polite for んです.
Translation
The sentence again:
この極楽の蓮池の下は、丁度地獄の底に当たって居りますから、水晶のような水を透き徹して、三途の河や針の山の景色が、丁度覗き眼鏡を見るように、はっきりと見えるのでございます。
Below this lotus pond of Paradise, because it touches the very bottom of Naraka, you can see through the quartz-like water, and the scenery, with the River of Three Crossings and the Mountain of Needles and so on was clearly visible, as if you're looking through a glass box.
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