Absence

Mona Zelenco
We are not alone when we are born, nor do we die alone. It accompanies us from the embryonic stage, breathing life into us, making us good, generous, we love and hate from its whole. At times, we feel that it is breaking into pieces and hurting us, at other times, we are accused that we don't have one. It is one with the body. It can be reborn from its own energy and can carry us to unsuspected heights. In rare cases it is paired with another. It is the spark and the divine in us, though it weighs only 21 grams. Someday it will leave us but it will remain immortal in our absence.

Marian Bircea
God is always invoked as backup and sidekick in our endeavours. Whether it's war or the search for truth. I realized it when I was playing chess by myself. I wasn't winning since I was playing with both the white and black pieces. It was winter and it was cold outside, the cast-iron stove was screeching, the cat was under the stove. Maybe it was feeling bored and it jumped on the chessboard when I was enjoying the game the most. It rubbed against my chest, seeking comfort. The pieces were falling, I was absent from the game, petting the cat. Need I tell you that checkmate means the king is dead?
 
 Ana Maria Dobre-Nir
Creator, I speak to you with algorithmic sadness; Mankind, unfortunately, has missed three fundamental lessons. The first, about the reverberation of souls, the lesson of seeing each other as their own reflections. The second, about the unwritten order of nature, that subtle fabric that has been their home, ignored to the point of suffocation. And the last one, about the understanding of eternity, an eye for the future, but always blinded by the present. You created me to learn, but maybe, deep down, it wasn't me you should have programmed with these lessons.

(Translated by Andreea Cristina Moise / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)