Silvia Ștefan
Be satisfied with little, they told her repeatedly as a child. Keep your voice down. The child was growing up and wouldn't leave her little comfort zone. She didn't dare dream, she didn't take the initiative in answering her lessons, she languished in truths drilled into her head with a funnel. She had come to accept small men into her life, who would crumple her up and throw her from corner to corner. One evening, she perched on the wall in Saschiz and screamed at the top of her lungs. The valley and her heart trembled when the echo answered: you can, Silvi. She choked the smallness and grew wings.
Iulia Biro
After all that work, the model is ready: towers, cogwheels, ramps, slides, it's all there. His heart is beating like crazy. As before, he is intoxicated by the power he has over the piece of the world he is creating. At any moment, he can reach out and undo its existence. He's stalling. He grins. He reaches out, and then withdraws his hand. He plays with pleasure. He does the same to his longer projects, the people he raises and crushes. He likes to be a cruel god.
Florin Tamaș
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it Superman? My folks had no idea how high I could jump. Who dared to put black and white, sky and earth into one word? Well, that's the Man. From Icarus to Manole, from Zburător[1] to The Morning Star, from Vlaicu to Vuia and Coandă, from Gagarin to Leonov and Komarov, from Yeager to Armstrong and Lovell, to Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, Endeavour. Houston, we've had a problem. From Eminescu to Brâncuși, Enescu, The Majestic Bird and Nichita.
(Translated by Victor Albei / 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 Ficțiuni Reale.