"The flood resumed and I was on a boat with himhe took along seven pairs of each animaland sailed at willtoward another promised landbut I knew he was not Noah. A nauseating smell of dead animals engulfed him constantlyand more fearful than a sparrowfacing a catI prayed that he would leave the boat. But the more the boat tossed the more so his spirit infusedthis momentous voyageuntil his body froze at the helmno longer a living being. Only then did we throw him overboard and suddenly the sky brightenedand one could see doves approachingover the churning waterbearing olive branches in their beaks."(THE FLOOD RESUMED) Translated by Eveline L. KANES and Mihai ZAHARIA
by Ileana Mălăncioiu (b. 1940)
