This semester my Comp II teacher asked us to read this book of short stories from Japanese authors. I first thought it was interesting, then naive now that she is adding more background to everything, AMAZING!
I am so appreciative of Fumiko Enchi for exposing herself and her mind to us the way she did. Truly a contemporary female author.
I just finish reading "The Flower-Eating Crone"
Thursday, Dec. 20, 2001
IN BLOOM
Kani-ba saboten (Christmas cactus)
By LINDA INOKI
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"In my disappointment, I put the plant, now just a clump of jagged green leaves, out of sight on my balcony,and for the following year I hardly gave it a thought. But the next fall I noticed tiny, jewel-like buds forming on its leaf tips, and soon they swelled into flower all over the plant, their heavy splashes of pink and crimson petals weighing down the leaves in voluptuous profusion." |
| From "The Flower-Eating Crone" by Fumiko Enchi (1905-86), translated by Lucy North in "Japanese Short Stories" (Oxford University Press) |
The spiked, segmented leaves of this cactus, which reach outward like claws, give this plant its popular Japanese name of kani-ba-saboten or shako-ba-saboten (meaning crab- or crayfish-leafed cactus). But to many Westerners, these exotic cacti are associated with Christmas because they bloom during the festive season. In the wild state, six species of Schlumbergera cacti grow in dry areas of southeastern Brazil, which explains why our pot-plant hybrids like well-drained soil and frost-free conditions. In Tokyo, they can usually live outside, but they are sensitive creatures, and if moved indoors at the wrong moment, as in the above story, they will drop all their promising buds.
