The Ogres' Swamp

Laura Stanciu
I've prepared some speech ideas for you. I found them in Romanian folklore. They catch the audience's attention. I came across a book by a professor. Iancu. Don't worry, you don't need to cite him, excuse me. Iancu, what was his last name? Hecht, excuse me. What? The Jews meddling in the mythology of our ancestors? Why didn't he take the train? He changed his name, excuse me. Aurel-Ion Candrea[1]. He even taught at the University of Bucharest. What could Jews possibly teach us? A people who came from the desert, thousands of years after our Dacia? That's right, excuse me.
Titela Durnea
He battered the dough as soon as dawn broke. Then he set it aside to rise. He knew his neighbor was struggling, so when he put it in the oven, he divided it in two. A great joy filled his heart at the thought of sharing, when he pulled out the golden-baked loaves.The next day, he called his neighbour over for a talk. From one piece, he gave to the birds of the sky and the creatures of the earth. He ate just a crumb himself. But the greedy neighbour devoured it all, kicking away the hungry animals from his yard. By evening, he had regurgitated it all into the pond behind the house, under the helpless gaze of the old man.

Fabiola Stoi
They told him it was just a small compromise, to turn a blind eye for a moment, after all, it was for a friend of the management. What did it matter if the position wasn't entirely legitimate? They'd give the operating permit, and that would be it. Nothing would happen, the sky wouldn't fall on you. And next time there's an advancement, we'll keep you in mind. He blinked slightly longer, and they kept him in mind for the next compromises, always reminding him of the ones before. He had become a prisoner of his own work. It wasn't until much later that they finally promoted him-into the suffocating depths of the system.

(Translated by Larisa Marta Mreană / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)


Real Fiction is a collective project started in 2013 by Florin Piersic Jr. The concept of Real Fiction continued to exist as a Facebook group, after a volume of stories was published at Humanitas Publishing House. (In January 2025, the group has 13,600 members.) The authors write ultra-short stories, with the texts limited to 500 characters (in Romanian, so the length of the English translation might be a little different) - a flash-fiction exercise on a topic that changes every few days. The group's coordinators are Florin Piersic Jr., Gabriel Molnar, Răzvan Penescu, Luchian Abel, Monica Aldea, and Vlad Mușat. (Drawing by Adrian T. Roman)

Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale.