Make Haste Slowly

Răzvan Drăgoi
I opened a hospital for the mentally ill. The first private hospital ran by patients in the world. On the first floor we have the conspiracy theorists, on the second floor we have people who think they're celebrities, and on the ground floor we have food, water, energy, meaning the dining room, the bathroom and the electric generator. We're not in a hurry, we do everything with a clear mind. For example, today we played soccer in the dining room with Stalin's head from room 5, because it turned out not to be the real Stalin. Entering our hospital is free of charge, getting out is not.
 
 Elena Fermuș
From an early age, she had told him that haste spoils the work. Don't jump into the first wave. He'd rather ponder than suffer. Life is fast anyway. And sometimes it is rough too, it doesn't give you the chance to fix what you've done wrong to it. When he grew up, and she knew him behind the wheel, his mom used to overwhelm him with the same words. Drive slowly, do you think I won't love you if you're five minutes late? Once he drove faster to catch her alive on the hospital bed. You've hurried, said she through her tears. You think I won't love you if you're gone, among the angels?
 
 Oana Jindiceanu
It means to be patient or whatever the poet means, I don't understand. I think the poet didn't actually mean anything, he was just stone drunk and made a joke, to make himself look more intellectual. There's no such thing, mate, no thing like this. You're either in a hurry or you're walkin' slowly, any fool knows that. (Pause) Okay, maybe just this crazy woman tha' I see every day. That one always walking from the Roman Square to the University Square on the theaters' side and says poems or something and even if she walks, she's always in the same place.

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