From a polished mahogany chest, adorned with gilded engravings, a nightingale emerges. A marvelous creature, imagined by Kempelen, the inventor of the mechanical chess player. When it opens its beak, its human-like voice penetrates deeply into souls, revealing secrets with disturbing precision. It can answer any question, if you know how to phrase it. Some say a woman is hidden inside the box, always attentive to everyone and everything. Perhaps that is true. But for a long time, no one has known anything about her.
Ana Ludușan
He is four years old, playing on the meadow in front of the house. His mother, beautiful like a fairy, is coming back from church. He stretches out his arms, she turns her back on him: I'm
going to change. She faints. Since then, he became a crow. He caws at everyone. He cawed his first love, an innocent girl, until he put her in the grave, he caws at his parents, his brothers, he drinks and uses drugs, he can't escape the curse no matter how loved he is. He flies in the flock of crows that caw every evening above the city; don't turn your back on your children.
Adina Drag
He wanted to take his human form back, but he crashed into the window of one of the buildings and fell onto the asphalt, right next to one of the stretches of water. He imagined himself as a balloon fish, inflating and growing in volume to defend himself. He crawled until he sank into the puddle with small creatures that looked at him in surprise: the ridiculous bird with the long beak and goose-like feet. Like that, Brown Booby, he whispered to himself. Build another world. Show them you're brave. That you're afraid. Show them you can fly, if you still can.
(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)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale.