Ten Nights' Dreams (¿¿¿, Yume J¿ya) is a classic written work from the Japanese master Natsume Soseki. Originally published in 1908, it announced the emergence in Japanese literature of a modernist and impressionistic mode. Short vignettes with fantastic, tragic, or magical events convey an exquisite sensibility compounded with stark realism. Love, honor, duty, artistry, desire, despair, and regret all shape events in the dream-world. The stories themselves suggest echoes of meanings beyond the failures of rational sense-making. Ten dreams-each unique and arresting-form a panorama of life and feeling, at once universal and intensely present.
"Our Cat's Grave" is a brief but heartfelt monody for a feline companion. Encompassing both the affection and the neglect, it becomes a meditation on empathy and helplessness, and on the transience of life and the persistence of memory.

Japanese novelist Natsume S¿seki studied literature in England and became professor at Tokyo Imperial University. The success of his stories, beginning with "I Am a Cat," launched a successful career that produced 22 novels, including Botchan, Kokoro, and Light and Darkness.