White-as-Sheet, yawned in boredom and threw a wooden block at the door. If phones had been invented, I'd call right away, and someone would come instantly. A crimson dwarf burster in. Yes, mistress? Open the windows. I can't breathe. The dwarf jumped around for nine minutes, struggling to reach the handle. White grew tired of the show and shouted, Send the superior! Gargantua appeared, trembling. Window, air, dwarf. The giant grabbed the dwarf, opened the window, and tossed him out. Idiot, he was the last one! Princess, let us invent valets and a bell by tomorrow.
Vlad Mușat
The money glittered in the sunlight for a moment, then clattered noisily onto the pavement. I was behind him, trying to imagine him laughing. The aunts were weeping, occasionally glancing towards the sky. We passed by the school where he had once taught. We stopped. The bell signalling the break rang for one minute. I wanted the day to pass faster. At the cemetery, the priest greeted us with a God rest his soul. A little bit later, I watched as four men slowly lowered him into the grave, and I realized I'd have to live more.
Răzvan Drăgoi
Come as you are, as you were, begins Kurt Cobain the song, as if he were still alive. Do you remember when we were in love, when we'd call each other just to share genius nonsense, when we were half-living in the sky? The present is the miscarriage of a graveyard of relationships. Back then our souls used to ring like bells, and could have never known if it were the music of the spheres or the seductive call of rattlesnakes. No, I don't have a gun, I hum, tone-deaf, as though I were still alive. On the radio, the ads start playing.
(Translated by Maria Loredana Constantin / 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.