I left a warm house, with four comfortable rooms, where I walked around barefoot and listened to light jazz blues. I took with me some notes, enough for a solfeggio. A decent repertoire for the road. I didn't care. The notes were running around me like they were iele[1]. Even if I was thirsty, hungry, cold, empty, there they were, my darlings, little soldiers to defend my redoubt. I was feeling invincible. Then you came along. And the notes were silent. I decided to come back in my heart. I'm listening to Nina Simone. I have a life.
[1] They are feminine supernatural creatures from Romanian mythology.
Sometimes, after a night out, I find myself drawn to the quiet solitude of sitting in my car parked in front of my house. Although I quit smoking, somehow I wake up with a cigarette between my fingers; I lean back in my seat and let the smoke lazily swirl around me. While the smoke rings roll towards the windshield, my fingers find themselves rolling with a pencil a cassette that reads Shine on you crazy diamond part.1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Apparently, diamonds iz my life.
Marian Benone Mihai
Music? I can only stand angelic, Byzantine music. The rest is evil music, because it invokes Satan and Christ said that the man must only call Him in his heart, with the eyes of his heart he must cry out, weeping with tears of joy, Christ, Christ, Christ. Most of all I like that song, God is with us. I sing it everywhere, in the shower, on the toilet and when I'm thinking about the good Lord and asking him to have mercy on me, the sinner, so that I can lend my body and my blood to Christ. Amen.
(Translated by Maria-Ilinca Darie / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / Corrected by prof. dr. Nadina Vișan, Edited by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale.