Over time, a carpet of sharp scraps had gathered between them. Sharp pieces of their floating dreams of youth, clubbed, hunted with a slingshot, hurled at each other with hatred, smashed against walls when they could no longer look at each other without screaming. Each time they froze in amazement, buried up to their ankles in broken glass, how they still remain together and how, twisting rainbows out of nothing, they give birth, again, to bright dreams. And now look at him, the fool, how he sits biting his fists. There are two steps between us, she hummed, I take the first.
Iunia Augustin
Damn you, you got rid of the problems and the troubles, you don't want my flowers, nor my horses or my beans anymore, babbled hag Jana sitting leaning on the jute bag, full of wonders, by the brand Mega Image, next to the cobblestone of the street was crowded by all sorts of people. Look at that lady, she could have killed me with the shards from the whiskey bottle. This is my moment, she said to herself. Let me read your future in your shards, because I see you are overcome by troubles in the way you walk and after the tears, I would say that suffering brings luck.
Siranuș Hakobian
I had the potential to be a faithful wife, I could feel it in the passion that consumed me when I put the sterilized cans of vegetable stew in the hot steam bath. Then came the bad hour, so to speak because it was a wonderful hour, when I crossed paths with this guy, completely indifferent to vegetable stew. My potential as a faithful wife was ruined, and my fragile morals were chipped here and there. The consequences were severe, culminating in a chronic inability to prepare cans for the winter.
(Translated by Andreea Laura Stanca / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale.