PLURAL MAGAZINE

When I go rattleriding my rattlebike up street,You're toppling in my wake on every sideAnd goggle at my progress from the sleetBefore you stand up rattlestupefied.  The rattleengine of my rattlebikeRaprattles and backfires in frightful fits. Girls call me names –

Winters in Ramnicu Valcea were quite mild in those times, though there was plenty of snow (I guess this is the cliché of those whose childhood memories are blurred by their excessive subjectivity); anyway, they unfolded following a certain ritual: at the beginning of December

Here was once the bedof a child who was borne,in a doll's box,to the park of earth and stone.  Since then, in their corner obscurethe lead soldiers stand dumb,stock-still by the trumpetthinking of battlesand victories imaginary.  A tin express trainin the wee cardboard

excerpts Mirceşti, 1880 Dear friend, These days I've lost a childhood friend, whose name resembled more of a person who lives in a tent than of a gentleman, for his name was Porojan! He was one of our slaves, a gypsy, and baker by trade. I confess having felt a

excerpts In 1888, popular health magazines would dedicate generous coverage to children's games, at the top of their education column. The main endeavor of parents must reside in the education of their infants from their very first day of life onwards, for health,

When I go to church I must pay attention only to the service, but my thought wanders far away, and to stop it from wandering, I tell it: Hey, 'thought', have you gone on holiday again? Don't forget you're still on the job with me, and you've got

She holds my bag and I choose the most beautiful nectarines. Her mother is at another stall, a little farther away. Mihaela puts my nectarines on the scales, types and tells me the price. She should be in the seventh grade, but she hasn't been to school for three years.

THE CLASS TEACH' You don't fool me, Ghiţulescu! You've got Kents, bless your wallet! Throw one over, 'cause I'm poor, my mother's unemployed and keeps me only on shots of glucose, she has no food to give me. Come ooooooon, please! Ghiţulescu

The movie made after the novel (aka The Graduates, 1987, directed by Nicolae Corjos, b. 1935 - click here to see fragment) – a simple, old story (a young man, Mihai, comes to the big city – Bucharest – to learn in high school, where his passion for math and philosophy

Between September 15 and June 15, every child's life was hijacked by school. School was the children's only officially-sanctioned pursuit. Their only obligation. None of us got any thrill out of getting up early, eyes heavy with sleep, and trudging all the way

excerpts A PRIMER OF SORTS KIWI Kiwi, the bird I am going to tell you about, goes by the name of Kiwi. No one ever saw it flying. It never came to anyone's window, ever. The wind never ruffled its feathers. The sun never turned its wings to gold. Kiwi is a bird from

END OF THE LAST TRIMESTER. Shortly before holidays, Radu and Dan are learning. To be precisely: they study. Even more precisely: they study zoology. With his head between his hands, balancing on the front feet of his chair, Radu reads aloud: The camel is a vertebrate mammal,