Once Upon a Time

Alexandra Buhudini
The wind doth blow today, my love, and a few small drops of rain; I only had but one true-love, and in the grave he lies. An', so it was that on the Holy Day of our Lord Jesu, after the preachment, in the village hearth where all doth lay their heavy heart, I did wassail together with the young lads and the lasses, as bright as the day's sun, an' we did raise the dust about us with our feet in fiery dance. Alas, for a great while Anghel's eyes hath burrowed themself overmuch in mine Maria's breast. An', at nighttime, I did seize him near the well-spring, an' I did strangle the breath of life out of him with a lute's string. May the solitude of hell swallow him whole. "I absolve thee, son, for my beloved son was he," so spake the priest so bitterly. "Bring forth the shackles and fetters."
 
 Ana Maria Dobre-Nir
In Granddad's attic, among the books, I find a box. I open it. Inside - a dusty photograph. A child is looking back at me. It is I. But the paper is too old. I run to Dad. I hold out the photograph. I ask who it is. Silence. Then, whispering: Your Granddad, when he was little. I can feel something twisting and turning inside me. But it is I. Or was. The air gets heavier, memories whisper in the dark. Shadows move in the corners, stretching out like silhouettes that seem almost alive. Maybe, somewhere, Granddad discovers me, too, in an old photograph.
 
 Andra Toropoc
He had to escape somehow. He was at home, time was passing, and she was bound to arrive; she would have found him, read hastily the missive, and yelled. But he could not write; his fingers were stiff and his mind jumbled. In fact, little did his words matter; the picture of him hanging in the bedroom would have been more expressive. The toll of the clock put a stop to his dream; she was sleeping next to him, and a sheet of paper had appeared on the table, as if something had prepared it for him, maybe a forewarning. It was a beautiful story, but the noose that follows next scares me, he scribbled down his cowardice and left.

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