I was asked who inspired me. I could've said so many things about the storytellers from Real Fictions, but I replied that I expected to win the Nobel Prize and that I wanted to leave the country. The speech was completely different from what I had imagined while taking a shower or walking my dog. I admit, that night I was a little scared, I thought the four ghosts would pay me a visit, but I realized that a Christmas Carol is never read at the train station.
Iulia Biro
Listen to what the story says: she left for his sake, wanting him to be happy and free, to create and enjoy life. Only he didn't realize that love had made him a prisoner and had clipped his wings, just like you would trap the branches of a fir tree in a net. He thought he was happy, but what kind of happiness is a life so simple for someone as wonderful as him? Where's the pleasure if there's no pain, could he explain? He couldn't. Out of the two of them, she was the wise one. She left on the evening train, but not before taking a bite out of his heart - that's what it says here.
Florentin Sorescu
I used to see her every day getting off the bus and heading to the platform, and I couldn't help but wonder what the hell a woman as beautiful as her was doing in an abandoned train station where no trains had stopped for years. Eventually, I couldn't resist the temptation anymore and went over there myself, just to understand what a woman that gorgeous could find appealing in a place that once was filled with people's faces, and now all you can do is watch weeds grow everywhere.
(Translated by Eduard Mihai Uretu / 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.