I Reincarnated as a Bird

Bogdan Sebastian Burjan
She was crouched in a corner of her room. Trembling. She looked at her arms which ached. Covered in bruises. From the next room, screams could be heard. Shouting. Cursing. Even her eardrums hurt. She was shaking all over. A vase shattered. Then came a dull thud. And after that, silence. She flinched when she heard loud knocks on her door. Frightened, she slid the bolt. She ran to the window. Looking down, everything seemed so small from up there. If only she had wings. To spread them. To fly away. She was just a child. She was five years old.

Julia Sandu
When Mom arrived at the hospital with slit wrists, Dad disappeared in silence. He lay there, staring blankly at the walls. He watched me, carrying burdens no child should ever have to bear. When I die, I will be reincarnated as a songbird, I used to tell myself. But I chose to be a raven because the sounds of songbirds would kill me. They are too alive, too full of hope, and I have none. I will become a raven, carrying the world's pain in my wings. If I must live, then I will do it without illusions and without promises.

Cecilia Fofiu
I'm driving like a maniac towards the clinic with Liza in labor. Her doll-like face is contorted with pain, and, ironically, what comes to my mind are the two months I courted her. She gave in slowly, because that scoundrel Mișu was courting her too, and it's him who calls me a sucker. But I am the chosen one, drunk with happiness, soon to be a father. Maybe a little too soon, my wife is giving birth just seven months after the wedding. I begged her to take care of herself, but the restless soul that she is, she wouldn't listen. Maybe it's for the best because she swelled up so much, and it was getting hard for her. What does it even matter now? I just want them both to be healthy.

(Translated by Iulia-Mihaela Țugulea / 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 March 2025, the group has 13,700 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.