Lambada

Andrei Popilian
Right, so here we multiply it by Lambada. Lambada, young lady, how many times do I have to tell you? Careful, if you get it wrong one more time, you're looking at an F. You'll end up dancing Lambada, you're a good for nothing. It's a shame your father had to break his back for you and you can't even solve an equation. And so, I became a dancer. I'm writing to you from a beach in the Caribbeans. I can't complain about money, the people are nice (I even took one of them to be my husband), the weather is friendly, and I wouldn't trade this sunset for anything in the world. I wonder what that poor teacher is up to.

Anca Mureșan
Our washing machine had broken and mom sent me to bring our curtains back from an aunt who had agreed with her to wash them at once with hers. It was a mild December, before Christmas, and on the road my attention was caught by the busy faces of the adults who were exchanging quick and worried looks. When I got back home, my mother told me that there had been shootings in Timișoara. Out of the horrors of those days I remember that on the kitchen radio, on heavy rotation, they were playing Lambada. Each time I hear it, I tell myself that that's the sound of liberty.

Oana Jindiceanu
It's the summer after the Revolution, I'm almost 9 years old. Șora Mușifoi Eungia Șami Feșoraa[1]. Just like this, move your hips, my friend shows me. It's easier if you have this type of skirt. I feel like a hippo on a rope. I don't have that type of skirt and that's why it's harder. My mom divorced my dad, she tells me. My parents divorced when I was four years old, I try encouraging her. Dançando Lambada-e, dançando Lambada-a. Do you wanna go roller skating? I have roller skates, let's see if my parents let me. When I will grow up, I will dance on the beach like the guys in that video.

(Translated by Laurențiu-Gabriel Niculae / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)


Real Fiction is a collective project started in 2013 by Florin Piersic Jr. The concept of Real Fiction continued to exist as a Facebook group, after a volume of stories was published at Humanitas Publishing House. (In July 2023, the group has 11,540 members.) The authors write ultra-short stories, with the texts limited to 500 characters (in Romanian, so the length of the English translation might be a little different) - a flash-fiction exercise on a topic that changes every few days. The group's coordinators are Florin Piersic Jr., Gabriel Molnar, Răzvan Penescu, Luchian Abel, and Vlad Mușat. (Drawing by Adrian T. Roman)

Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale.