Ikigai

Monica Aldea
Doctor, don't give up now. I've written my observations in my mother's file. It's a rather new method, I'm a med student, our professor explained it to us. The boy's voice was trembling. The doctor stared at him, unmoved. Student, I'm the doctor. Discharge the patient. Get it through your head: we don't grapple with death. The nurse's hand shook him firmly. It's time, professor, the operating room is prepared. For the past 30 years, the surgeon carried the locket with his mother's face around his neck like a lucky charm . Let's go. We're grappling with death over here.
 
 Titela Durnea
She was happy and she knew it. She stared at the rocking-chair with tenderness and the faintest trace of wonder, drawn upon her face by the now-white eyebrow. She realised, smiling, that it had been a constant in her life. She had been rocked in it, and in it she had rocked her dreams, her children, her grandchildren; she had wept and laughed there, wiping tears away with her palms. She stepped out onto the terrace, surrendering herself to the sun's embrace. Then she took her daily walk through the grove behind the little cottage. By nine, she was back. The tea was waiting. So was the gentle, familiar creaking. She was happy, and she knew it.
 
 Ana Maria Dobre-Nir
The screen flickers. Level 1: Market Domination. The majority shareholder enters - black suit, blue tie. Minority shareholders stand. Hostile takeover initiated. Swift attack. Aggressive mergers, hidden clauses, liquidations. One falls. Another flees. It's close. Final Boss appears: Conscience. It struggles, in vain. One last click: Disable Ethics. Silence. A faint voice tries to resist. The final button is pressed - calmly. Charts soar, markets shudder. Game complete. The verdict flashes on screen: PROFIT. Next level begins.


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