Romanians' Childhood: Analyzing A Big Question
How on earth have we survived our childhood? If you were a child in the 60s, 70s or early 80s, how did you manage to survive? From early childhood on we would travel in buses and cars with neither seatbelts nor airbags… a trip in the trailer of a lorry was a remarkable
Bucurita, Daughter Of The Mountains
excerpt MARGICA, PAPARUDA: You could die laughing, that's screamingly funny. Hah, hah, hah! MARGICA: Well, I never! Hah, hah, hah!PAPARUDA: Goodness sakes. . . hah, hah, hah!THE EMPEROR: But what's wrong? Why are you both speaking at the same time… what did
The Wolf As Moralist
Can you still remember hearing once a story told to you by meOf the wolf who chanced anointed to the royal throne to be?I shall now impart what followed in his state or polity. Hearing first His lawful Highness that under his reign and ruleMost of his revered lieutenants
Petrea The Fool
excerpt What happened, happened; had it not happened, there would be no story to tell. Once, there was a man, who was so rich that he lost count of his riches. He had such a large courtyard that seven times seven carts pulled by oxen could move in circles, and surrounding
The Purse A'Tuppence
Once there was an old woman and an old man. The old bag had a hen and the old man, a rooster; the woman's hen laid eggs twice a day and the hag would eat a barrel of eggs; and to the greyhead she would give none. One day, the old man lost his temper and spoke:Old woman,
Prince Charming Of A Tear Born
In the days of old, when the people of today were just the project of a distant future, when God Himself trod with His sacred feet the rocky deserts of the earth – in those old times there was a king, gloomy and pensive as the dark midnight, and he was married to a young
One Good Year's Ass And Sure Man's Pass
One day Nassredin the Hajji, down a lane and past a rail,Walking, caught in so much wonder one rich sight, beyond the pale:In a rich man's yard an ass foal gaudily bedecked was, all,Clad in very gaudy harness gold embroidered and preparing for a day's big festival
The Story Of Pacala
Pacala has been a movie hero since as early as 1915. The most recent film, on a much lighter note than the story above, is Pacala's Return, or Pacala 2 (2006), directed by Geo Saizescu (who also directed Pacala, 1974 - click here to see preview), and subject to harsh
Tests
In 1982, with a thorn in my heart and my three-year-old son by the hand, I was calling on our the pediatrician-psychiatrist: in defiance of everyone around me, who did not believe my worries were well-grounded, I wanted to find out why my child was acting so strangely, why
Like Then: A Memory With M
I was walking through the campus on a sunny September morning, which was calm, fresh, with a deep blue sky, like then. Then, just as now, the dew that fell during the night on the grass sparkled coldly and delicately. The sun was strong and gentle. Through the pure air passed,
Nobody's Angels
excerpts PROMISES Those of us who looked after the severely ill, close to their end in hospitals or foster homes made a lot of promises to them. Some asked for the impossible, namely to save them from death, but most of them only wished not to die alone and, above all,
The Child Is Another Soul
In the Balkans full of various mythologies, it is said that nobody can move faster than angels[1] when it comes to passing from one human being to another, thus populating the earth. Yet angelic beings are not among the early manifestations of our national imagery. Romanians