Can there be thinking without memory?

this reminds me of when a Japanese translator wanted to translate a piece that had the concept of achieving dreams in it - she absolutely could not grasp what was meant by dreams - other than what you have during sleep. My trying to explain personal goals and etc did not help, finally she told me the only word the Japanese could possibly relate to as similar was chi. -- Even though imho it has nothing to do with chi, I let her go with it because the rest of the message translated fairly well. But - so yes words - represent thoughts and memory. She had no thoughts of nor memory of anything she could relate to in the concept of acheiving dreams.