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The Black Crooner's Girl

While oftentimes for our showtwo little girls tune in, hence. . . they strain their ears in diligence,those flax-haired siblings – this I know.  E'en Mr. Bunny, a friend preferredpending their play, has pricked his handles:on radio all the three have heard –that

The Bricklayer

An early bricklayer climbs Up the scaffold growing high,Oana watched him many timesWorking hard, close to the sky. When the wintry chill was sore,T'was a heavy coat he wore. Today his strong arms are bare,Sleeves rolled up in the spring air. And towards the joy-filled

May Day

The First of May,The First of May,The whole town's marching on this day –Little red flags everywhereWaving brightly through the air. Girls and boys,In convoys,Through the streets sing of their joys. Wheat field, wheat field, within hours,You are going to unfoldThrough

Blue Evenings

excerpt VICA'S DIARY Vica had forgotten her diary under her pillow. Usually, she kept it in the drawer of her nightstand and in the evening, before turning off the light, she would write down her impressions of that day. Mica found it by chance. She was there tidying

Action P. 1500

excerpt FURTHER ON YOU WILL FIND OUT THAT I HAVE A GOOD MOTHER, A NAGGING SISTER AND A FATHER WHO ALWAYS YELLS Why should we lie, I know that you don't know my Christian name, nor my surname either. You have all heard that I am called Cry-Baby. Well, I was unfairly

The First Book, The Last Book

excerpts Dear Mother, I'd like to tell you something, and just because if I tried to talk to you about it, you wouldn't let me, I'm putting it in writing. You said to me, I quote: You go to school, do a good job there, finish well and we'll let you do

Novel Of The Nearsighted Adolescent

excerpt  VI. MONDAY, 8 TO 9, GERMAN When I was in the first grade, I flunked French, German and Romanian. I used to spend my afternoons barefoot on the pitch, sweating, short-sighted, playing oina. [1] I had become famous for the lightning rapidity with which I would catch

The Storm

The two students, Andrei Banica and Tudor Leru were in a hurry. That's why they had taken the shortcut. Leaving the highway that was taking a detour on the bank of the river Aries, they decided to climb up Vanatu, the mountain bordering on the river like a huge flat

The Life And Times Of Andrei Mihai Stan

Writing an oral history of a ten-year-old child may seem like a perfectly absurd enterprise any day of the week. The social experience of an individual of ten would not recommend an approach of this kind. With such a person it cannot be a matter of immediate memory. Hence

Parents Are To Be Educated (Sometimes)

How educated are the Romanian parents? I asked Martha Iliescu, the president of the organization Our Children, while I was looking for material for an editorial about teen mothers. I am told that, according to the survey Knowledge, skills and parental practices in Romania,

The Childhood Certificate

I once experienced a terrible fright. I woke up one day to discover a different world from what I knew it to be, more clear-cut, more plainly divided into complementary colors and opposite moral categories. It all looked like in a naive painting: clear and graphic. The only

Two Wonder-Kids And A Female Cannibal

The jurist Matei Monorai lives nearby. If you'd hear him plead in court, you would not hesitate to call him Matei Golden Mouth. Ambrozie is on his way over, to ask Matei to plead for Vornicu, who has been sentenced to death. He arrives. Matei`s kids are playing outside,