Flower Memories and Other Essays

A flower can preserve the fear of a deserted playground, the uneasiness of a youthful dream, or the memory of an unexpected gift. In Flower Memories, Terada Torahiko recalls nine such encounters, letting their unresolved feelings remain alive in the plants that surround them.

These six complete essays range from personal recollection to the science of everyday things. Watching steam and moving light in a cup of hot water, Terada leads the reader toward clouds, thunderstorms, and seasonal winds. A long meditation on the phonograph traces its progress from a schoolroom wonder to a source of consolation after the death of his wife.

Elsewhere, an uncomfortable mosquito net prompts practical questions, a remembered concert reveals a lighter side of Natsume Sōseki, and a wasp turns a garden caterpillar into a carefully rounded load. The writer observes closely without forcing nature to deliver a convenient moral.