Eforie[1] mud, youth in a box. Only 30 lei, Mitică. It's a remedy. At 10:30, Lenuțo? By the time we're done, we have to go. There's no time. Take the corn, my friend. Come on, buy two. Only 20 lei. Cheaper than the sun loungers. Lenuța, if that's the one with the cucumber, it will be 11. At 12 we go to lunch. Hold on. How beautiful life is, sweet as ice cream. Mitică, have at least one with vanilla. Cheaper than the corn. If this is the one with the ice cream, it's 11:30. You'll spoil your appetite. In half an hour you'll be eating broth soup.
[1] Eforie is a tourist resort on the Romanian seaside.
Cristina Daniela Dumitru-Pascal
Look what a beautiful shell I found, mom. It's pearly, like your skin, it's got a red spot like your lips and look, look and a little blue, those are your eyes, mom. I'll hide it in the sand here by the sea, put dill berries on top to recognize the place and find it every year. A man picked up the little girl carefully, she snuggled in his arms and stroking his whitened beard whispered in his ear, Honey, mommy will be waiting for us. They left. Behind them the sea had receded, the stray wave carrying a shell and a picture.
Sanda Burță
They say a shore once had a little white house and a mooring. The cottage and the mooring had a man whom they shared brotherly, a good man, oath or lamentation heard neither house nor boat from his mouth. You'd have thought he was happy. When he brought his wife, the house would no longer fit him, the boat no longer wanted him. The man put his hands on his head and looked at his wife. The wife put her hands on her hips and looked. All around, desolate. He grabbed an oar and changed all the ropes. Then a woman had a shore, a little white house and a boat.
(Translated by Andreea Cristina Moise / 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.