He looked in astonishment as life passed livelier and livelier around him. He wanted to close his eyelids, but he was bewildered to discover he no longer had eyelids, so an abysmal fright shook the very foundation of his being. I'm alive, he screamed at the top of his lungs, but the words remained imprisoned in the thought's womb, unable to be born. With a silent wince, he wanted to rise to his feet, but he no longer had feet and his flesh turned to glass. Realization dawned on him. The lightning-Death turned him into an hourglass, half heaven, half hell. All his ancestors were flowing through him, grain by grain.
(Translated by Andra Daiana Păuna / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficţiuni Reale.