Once Upon a Time

Laura Stanciu
There once was, like an uninterrupted thought, above a ravaged bed where his parents were conceiving him, a boy, the blondest in the family pictures. Then, the shortest in the class, and the tallest by the end of high school. He was an eminent student of Architecture, and for forty years, he designed office buildings. He was twice wed, just as many times as he had become a father. He was once a retiree, a grandfather, and a widower. Then, he became a character in a story written by a granddaughter who adored him.
 
 Ana Ludușan
We were and are wanderers. We wander between the Eternal Romania and the American Dream. We do not reach America, we stop in Spain, as strawberry pickers, in Germany, as asparagus farmers, or in Italy, as caretakers for the elderly. We are exceptional surgeons in France and Brazil. We are researchers, music composers, artists, writers, businesspeople. We wander the whole earth with the Eternal Romania on our minds and the desire to prove ourselves internationally in our hearts. We are wanderers and always wonder why we have not found a place in the Romanian sun.
 
 Răzvan Dițescu
There once was a house by the edge of a city, on a street where no one stopped. The wind did not blow around there either, as if it too had forgotten the path. There once was a man who talked with mirrors and a boy who drew on walls. There was once a woman who looked through the window. There once was a dog that did not bark and a clock that ran backward. There once was a house whose walls whispered the names of past residents. There once was a door that said: If you come in, there is no way out.

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