I am librarian Goguța, chief censor in the New Sanitary and Literary Commission. In accordance with the new rules, I will remove intolerant, racist or sexist Romanian stories from the shelves and files. Look, Harap Alb story is the most defiant, it thought the oxymoron could take me by the nose - racist. All that have Prince Charming - sexist, macho. Călin The Fool - discriminated against, The Story of the Pig - speciesism, Ivan Turbincă - xenophobic. I almost forgot about Human Stupidity. Oh, and look at the crime story, The Story of Stories, The Dick Story. Down with her, immediately.
Iulia Biro
Back when the Earth was inhabited by giants, with each of them a story was born. They were big and so were the stories. They were gory and so were the stories. They didn't die, so neither did the stories. Gradually, the Earth became crowded with increasingly agitated and impatient giants. No one had the patience for stories anymore and they let them disappear. You see, when the story disappeared, so did its giant. The last one wrote about the demise of the immortals, but forgot to save his own story.
Mădălina Angelescu
I was looking at him through the lens of the camera. I drew in his mind every wrinkle of expression from the corners of his mouth, of his green eyes. Tousled hair was flying in all directions. I would bring it close to me, and then with a simple movement of my hand I would project it onto the endless blue of the sea. I caught a few snapshots. Now they are attached with magnets to the fridge door. In the mornings I run my finger over those wrinkles, over the unruly hair. I sink my eyes into the calm of the sea. I sigh deeply. 20 years have passed.
(Translated by Andreea Maria Liceanu / 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.