Princely Nuptials
Marina, I had a fantastic dream… I'm writing it down for you. I was getting out of bed, naked, just as I was, and left. Outside the house a beautiful orchard extended in all directions. The shadows of the trees, the moonlight, and I – walking the tender grass
A Concert Of Bach's Music
excerpts The contact with the air, the world, dazzled him as if he had been a novice passenger on a ship. He knew naught – whether he was sick or well; whether his frame would master the novelty, or if he was at peril with that new diet of his. Therefore, Ada had quickly
To A Departing Mistress
You call it true love, and believe t'was so…I call it a brief lapse of sanity…Yet what it was,What it was meant to be, The two of us, perhaps, will never know. It was a dream we lived upon a shore,A sad song brought to us from distant landsBy some white birds
Page Cupid
Of all pages, wily CupidIs most pampered and ill-bred,Playing pranks with naughty children,Sleeping in a lady's bed… As is usual with burglars,He keeps clear of any lightAnd, with great precaution groping,Climbs the window-sills at night. Ribbons and all sort of
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
The Almsmonger's Lover
excerpt They'd dozed off. The devilish furnace of the sun was blazing fiercely. They were positively stewing as through the shadow cast by their soles two Gypsy women walked by, bent under the burden of a galvanized bucket with a chunk of ice protruding from it. Ice-cold
Memoirs Of A Witness
I was born and I spent my childhood in the capital of the country that is called Romania, a state that at that time had prided itself for about a decade with the name of Greater Romania, which was a creation of the preceding generation, but also the outcome of a long series
The Ethnogenesis Of The Dobrujan Turks
The definition of the genesis, as well as the delimitation of the area where the Turkish people was formed, and from where they spread from Central Asia to the Mediterranean Sea, is still a controversial issue among specialists. Discussions between Turkology scholars usually
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 Dynamic Equivalence Of Gypsy Fashion
Gianina lu' Manşonică of Sinteşti interviewed by Tita Chiper Our host's courtyard could be best described as transition in progress, accurately preserving each of its successive stages: it begins with two run-down foreign cars, and ends with an ashen tent proudly
Four Life Stories
At the Outskirts of Giurgiu*At the outskirts of Giurgiu there was a Turkish village, and that village was called Selima. When the Turks left the city, a hundred and a half years ago, we, the gypsies who tinned the pails, continued to live in that village. We remained in
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