Soundtrack

Clara Marinescu
I hear voices, but mostly with my left ear, in which with every move my head makes, some footsteps start crunching like pressed into a puddle, I guess, accompanied by a rippling. I'm walking down the streets shaking my head happily and people pass by, thinking I'm nuts. For my joy, I found where to park and I'm the first in line in the queue in Kaufland. Among the gurgling voices, I manage to reach the otolaryngologist. I shake my head without joy when, with the help of a syringe, the doctor removes from the wet entrance a whole soundtrack that arrived here from the pool water.
 
 Sorin Rizeanu
Hey? said the soldier with sunken cheekbones and a bulging eye. Listen, this war is like a rock song. The projectiles are like Jimi Hendrix. You can hear him strumming his guitar. The heavy column of tanks crossed the river and broke away on the flank. Sounds like Wagner to me, laughed the engineer sarcastically, adjusting the rifle scope. At three o'clock, open camo and kevlar. It's the commander, because the soldiers don't wear kevlar. The T-14s were marching dismally, Wagner's Valkyries and Matvey was preparing the Javelin anti-tank missile. Next to him, the engineer was murmuring a Halloween song.

Oana Jindiceanu
When we were young, we used to scroll the tapes with a pencil and we knew by sight where the favorite song was. Now I have a playlist on my phone. Touch me. When I have existential questions I'm taking a walk, press shuffle and the next track is The Future. Which is uncertain and the end is always near, but where is my mind I have no idea. I press next, and I'm thinking about you; Le vent nous portera. I turn up the volume. Now it's clear. No line on the horizon. I laugh. Airplanes. People stare at me weirdly. I sing loudly. Show must go on. It is what it is.

(Translated by Constantin Grigorescu / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)