Groundhog Day

Yuka Brevi
That cloud is so dark that by the time it gets here, on top of the mountain, you have to learn to see with your eyes closed. You already can, but you're not aware of it yet. There is no enemy to defeat you, but you may die crushed to the rocks like a bird without wings. The one who does not understand his own nature will fight himself. This is your last challenge. Whoever does not overcome, will take it again and again, or he'll die. Having said this, Master Katashi bit noisily into an apple.

Daniela Toader
We got married less than three months since we met. A small wedding between friends, a honeymoon weekend, his two-bedrooms apartment, my books, the nights of love, the dreams, the holiday plans, the cakes and ale with friends, his accesses of jealousy, the arguments, the slaps. At less than six months after we got married, I stuffed the books into a suitcase and left. In the two-rooms apartment, buried under regrets and empty beer cans, he's still digging. It must have been something, it must, he says.
 
 Magdalena Daminescu
Confused by this early spring, she unbuttoned her coat, threw off her hat and dug into the light, convinced she would be seen and admired. Almost blindly she looked around, the snow had melted, snowdrops were enjoying in the sun, the wind was playing with a few dead leaves, but no one paid any attention to her, as if they didn't see her. She studied herself in the mirror of the nearby puddle and didn't like what she saw. A child with a stick came up and kept hustling her, but fat and slow as she was, she hardly made it back into the darkness.

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