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《银河铁道之夜（銀河鉄道の夜）》是宫泽贤治最重要的作品之一，影响了诸多后世作品，以银河+铁道的元素搭配出现在了许许多多的文艺作品之中。
它实际上是未完成作品：宫泽贤治生前反复修改，留下多个阶段的草稿，研究上通常区分为第一至第四次稿；现在最常见的版本主要是基于最后阶段的第四稿。宫泽贤治相关研究机构也明确将其描述为经过反复改稿的未完作品。
它表面的故事其实很简单：孤独的少年乔万尼（ジョバンニ）在半梦半醒般的状态下登上一列穿行银河的列车，发现最亲密的、也是唯一的朋友康帕内拉（カムパネルラ）也在那里。两个人于是沿银河旅行，经过北十字、天鹅座、天蝎座等地方，并不断遇见形形色色的乘客。
但慢慢地，一个关键事实会浮出水面：这其实并不只是一列载着活人的火车，旅途中遇到的一些乘客实际上已经死去。
于是银河铁道列车逐渐显露出某种连接生与死、此岸与彼岸的性质。而康帕内拉之所以会出现在列车上，也和现实世界中贾内利引发发生的那场事故有关。
这本书里有一个不容忽视的问题，康帕内拉和乔万尼都在追寻的问题。
「ほんとうの幸い」——真正的幸福，究竟是什么？
而这个问题又会一路牵扯到孤独、友情、死亡、牺牲、宗教、他者的幸福，以及活下来的人应该怎样继续活下去。
其中，尤其值得注意的是，第三次稿和第四次稿的差异非常大。第三次稿最后还有一个重要人物布尔卡尼罗博士（ブルカニロ博士），会在某种程度上替乔万尼解释这场银河旅行；到了第四次稿，宫泽贤治却把这个“解释者”整个删掉了，没有一个权威人物站出来告诉乔万尼“你刚才经历的一切究竟是什么意思”。他只能自己经历、失去，然后回到现实。
（部分译本会将布尔卡尼罗博士的剧情用括号填充进去，并说明这部分内容的来源。）
"The Celestial Railroad/Fantasy Railroad in the Stars/Galaxy Train" is one of the most important works by Kenji Miyazawa, which has influenced numerous later works. The combination of elements of the galaxy and the railroad has appeared in a wide range of literary and artistic works.
It is actually an unfinished work: during his lifetime, Kenji Miyazawa repeatedly revised it, leaving behind drafts from multiple stages, which are generally divided into the first to fourth drafts in research; the most common version today is mainly based on the fourth draft, which is the final stage. Research institutions related to Kenji Miyazawa also explicitly describe it as an unfinished work that underwent repeated revisions.
The story on its surface is actually quite simple: a lonely teenager named Giovanni (ジョバンニ) boards a train traversing the galaxy in a half-dream, half-awake state, and discovers that his closest and only friend, Campanella (カムパネルラ), is also there. The two then travel along the galaxy, passing places such as the Northern Cross, Cygnus, and Scorpio, and constantly encountering a variety of passengers.
But slowly, a crucial fact will emerge: this is not just a train carrying living people, some of the passengers encountered on the journey have actually died.
Thus, the Galaxy Railway Train gradually revealed a certain quality of connecting life and death, this world and the next. And the reason why Campanella appeared on the train was also related to the accident caused by Gianelli in the real world.
There is an issue in this book that cannot be ignored, an issue that both Campanella and Giovanni are pursuing.
"Hontou no kouki" - What exactly is true happiness?
And this question will further involve loneliness, friendship, death, sacrifice, religion, the happiness of others, and how those who survive should continue to live.
Among them, it is particularly noteworthy that there is a significant difference between the third and fourth drafts. In the third draft, there is an important character, Dr. Burcanello, who explains the galactic journey to some extent on behalf of Giovanni. However, in the fourth draft, Kenji Miyazawa deleted this "interpreter" entirely, leaving no authoritative figure to tell Giovanni "what exactly does what you just experienced mean". He can only experience it himself, lose it, and then return to reality.
(Some translations will insert the plot of Dr. Bulcanero in parentheses and indicate the source of this content.)