A memory of passenger trains
A long journey
She is only five, six, seven years old
When they ask her questions, she answers with confidence.
They laugh: what a cunning girl,
she'll sell you in a minute!
She does not use cunning
and does not sell,
and they are
alien to her.

A later, but unclear memory of
her lies: her more perfect reality.
Truth in advance.

A clear memory of books with stiff pages and large pictures
The lumberman fastens the paws of the bear
The shepherds throw the wolf into the river tied up in a sack
The old man does away with the beasts civilly squeezed in the little mitten
Bulgarian fairy tales
German fairy tales
Dark forests
Deadly gnomes
Children frightened to death

Hanzel and Gretel
Ivancho and Mariyka
Still roaming
Ghosts
Unanswered prayers for a secure world.

Translation: Valentin Krastev