I dreamed I was in a luxury hotel, and I had a seal that gave me milk and eggs, but I had run out of hay. The seal was famished and went ow, ow, ow. Someone knocked on one of the heat pipes. I said something about the seal, and he went quiet. But then he showed up at the door. It was Putin. The seal went ow, ow again, Putin went shoo, shoo around it. They spun in circles until the seal vomited on his suit. Putin stripped down to his underwear, and went to the bathroom to wash up, while I stood in the middle of the room, watching him through the door left ajar. Picturesque.
Teodora Ștefănescu
I have an album full of Japanese prints. On my walls hang ink and watercolour copies of Hokusai, painted by my downstairs neighbour, Ndebele - an immigrant from Cameroon - talented, though. I read only Japanese literature, I dressed my girlfriend in a kimono ordered straight from Nihonbashi, which she wore to the Opera, when we saw Madama Butterfly. I swear the audience ignored the stage completely, their eyes were fixed on us all evening. I ordered fugu at a restaurant in Chinatown Obor and invited Ndebele. He was the first to try - and the last.
Răzvan Dițescu
In the little village hidden among the hills, where the rustling of leaves had meaning, time flowed like a breeze. The old man stepped out onto the porch, listening to the murmur of the brook beside the house. A child passed by on the road. He seemed lost. Where to, buddy? I'm looking for a treasure. The old man picked up a pebble from the stream and handed it to him. Every stone is a treasure, if you have the eyes to see it. Sit and listen. The child sat down on the grass, and time slipped away. When he left, he carried a pebble in his pocket and, in his heart, a peace he had never known before.
(Translated by Marian-Cătălin Niculăescu / 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.