The Tale Of Ionica The Fool
In a village, the story goes, there once lived a lad who had neither father, nor mother, nor any other kin; so obscure was his lineage, in fact, that for all we know, he may well have dropped there from the sky. As the boy was meek, long suffering and slow to speak, the
Record Of Journey To Romania, May 1924
excerpts X In the morning of May 27th I went to see Mr. Tatarescu, at the office of the Prime Minister. I quote the main points of what Mr. Tatarescu told me: He is the Under-Secretary of State for political issues, including Minorities issues. As these latter are of particular
Turks, Germans, Americans... And Other Nationalities
An event that happened several years ago and has turned, in time, into an urban legend, goes like this: the employees of a German-owned media trust had become lazy and unruly, would come to work when, and if, they felt like it, and would actually work only between two coffee
Doja's Horse, Spek's Tractor And The Missing Hook
Spek Jr. , from Satu Nou, had a tractor called Doja. Since nothing in the world is fortuitous, the name of that machine was not fortuitous either. Spek Sr. , a filthy Jew, as he was called by some people from Iosefin, was a fervent advocate of communism and had been hurdled
The Ruthenians
I was, am, and will remain, a Rusyn. Aleksander Dukhnovici A short historyThe Ruthenians are a population that is descended from a Slavic branch of the Indo-European nations. Their name is mentioned by Julius Caesar, with reference to a Celtic tribe settled in Gallia Narbonensis.
The Wild Wine Gallery
excerpt Bunthe had thought it appropriate to put up their two unexpected guests from Bucharest with Father Calist. The villagers were saying they had got lucky. The weather was beautiful, spring was coming. The sun shone as if it was already April. The wildflowers that
Hans's Wife
Hans (some people called him Hanz, or Franz, others Krantz like the cake, and others didn't even take the trouble to call him that much) had a wife who towered over him by a full head, and had a truly horse-like face. Her legs were long and slender, and seemed to lack
Jewish Identities In Interwar Bucovina
There were Jews in Bucovina even before its existence as a separate province. As early as the 18th century, some Jewish families in the German area looked for a better life in this northern part of Moldavia, which subsequently became Bucovina. Here they were given more protection
Religious Conversion In 19th Century Moldavia
The baptized JewIn the late 1990s I had planned to include at the end of my book The Imaginary Jew in Romanian Culture a chapter entitled The Baptized Jew. As I worked on this subject I realized that it had been extensively discussed by the historian Mihai-Răzvan Ungureanu
History According To Spiro Zervas
Lend us some cash, do, till pay-day, now how's one supposed to react to such an entreaty, and at such short notice, too?, one may have or not have the money, but when one has an equally hard time making ends meet, when the gap between the lustre of respectability and
Triumphalus, Or The Sunset Of The Stallions
excerpt The Old Geezer had come again to the shore of the Black Sea to buy himself an eye. The other reason was to spend a honeymoon here. As a rule, he would go back with an extra honeymoon and the same number of eyes. Five years before, appalled as he was by the fact
Correspondance Alecsandri-Ghica-Negri
A Ion Ghica Mirceşti, 9 août 1880 Cher vieux, Je t'envoie les quatre premiers actes de Pepelea. Quant au cinquième; je dois le retoucher avant de te l'envoyer, ce sera fait bientôt. J'ai eu un tas d'affaires et de moussafirs depuis mon retour. J'espère