He was sitting by the river. If someone had seen him, they might have thought he was dead. Birds were all around him, some perched on his shoulders and head. She approached cautiously. The birds flew away. The man lifted his gaze from the water and said: Isn't the world beautiful? Are you feeling okay? I thought you might be unwell. What could happen to me that isn't meant to happen? Sit down. Let's watch the river together. If anyone had seen them, they would have thought they were statues, sitting there, surrounded by birds.
Dorin Vasile
When the principal called us to the teachers' lounge, it never crossed my mind that he'd skip me. About an hour later, I found out that some big shot from the capital had come to convince them to apply for officer school. You don't belong there, my father said when I asked why I hadn't been called. Because of your uncle. What uncle? Oh, the one I didn't even know existed. I only met him after '89. He showed up in a ridiculous suit-he looked like a clown. But he won us all over. He had come with bags of aid and stories that blew our minds.
Alina Ilie
When you love, the soul paints the images swirling around you. Affection speaks through the heart, and in that moment, you see a story around you, told in the superlative of feeling - do you remember? Yes, beside us was an old broken bench, twigs, the remnants of a deer's resting place, and brambles with thorns ready to snare you. I pulled you toward me to keep you safe from them, and you told me it was the most beautiful sunset - that the fresh mountain green was breathing through you. And it truly was the most beautiful sunset - the one in which the sun burned away my loneliness on the horizon.
(Translated by Cristina Ioana Bontea / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale.