When the ukaz came out, people weren't outraged. After all, much bigger smashers had been heard, that it seemed something frivolous, tabloid-like. Well, there is nothing much in it, all the pink in the world had been commandeered for a movie. We have so many colors, one less is not that a big deal. Nobody thought seriously about the consequences, and anyway, nobody understood basically how do this thing. Only until the next spring, when the pink magnolias, devoid of their colorful sap, stopped blooming. What, even the pink of the magnolias? I hate Barbie.
Daniela Toader
They never discovered her. They couldn't have. No one knew how much she loved him. One day she surprised him and rang his doorbell. When he saw her, the words got stuck in his throat. She came in and started to clatter. She'd do anything for him, cook him goulash and wash his shirts. His shorts. His socks. And she wouldn't speak without being asked. No way she loved him to death. But he didn't want , because he was married. When she finished, Magnolia Protopopescu took a napkin out of her pocket and wiped away all traces.
Cristian Nedelcu
In the cell where he had been thrown, the only rays of light came through the ventilation slot, which he could not reach. On one of the walls, a former inmate had carved the shape of a vaulted window. He began to scrape too with the spoon he had stolen, taking advantage of the guard's carelessness. First a flowering tree, then another. And birds. Lot of birds. When darkness fell, shivering of cold, he curled up on the plank that served as his bed. He dreamed himself wrapped in a blanket made of pink petals.
(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)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale.