Romanian Fantastic Tales, ed. uncredited, translated by Ana Cartianu (Minerva Publishing House, 1981).
“Archaeus” by Mihai Eminescu
“Ioan Vestimie” by Mihai Eminescu
“Minjoala’s Inn” by Ion Luca Caragiale
“Hen Coops” by Alexandru Macedonski
“Califar’s Mill” by Gala Galaction
“Spell-bound” by Vasile Voiculescu
“Amin, the Fisherman” by Vasile Voiculescu
“The Salmon-trout” by Vasile Voiculescu
“The Recluse” by Vasile Voiculescu
“The Leech” by Vasile Voiculescu
“Remember” by Mateiu I. Caragiale
“The Pixie of the Marshes” by Cezar Petrescu
“The Roadside Cross” by Gib Mihăescu
“Gypsies” by Mircea Eliade
“The Man Who Sold His Gloom” by Oscar Lemnaru
“The Bustard” by Ștefan Bănulescu
Povestiri fantastice: Fantastic Tales, bilingual, Romanian-English edition; English translations by Eric Tappe (Dillon’s, 1969).
“Twelve Thousand Head of Cattle” by Mircea Eliade
A cattle dealer hides in an anti-aircraft during an air raid and later learns that those who hid there with him had died a month before.
“A Great Man” by Mircea Eliade
“deals with a case of ‘macroanthropism’…the story of a giant comparable to a certain point to the one in H. G. Wells’s The Food of the Gods (1904).”
“The Cobbler of Hydra” by Mihai Niculescu
From George Campbell’s review in The Slavonic and East European Review (1971)
“The ‘fantastic’ element is certainly present in all three stories; though there is not much common ground between the whimsical melancholy of Mihai Niculescu’s [“The Cobbler of Hydra”] and the bizarre drama of Mircea Eliade’s [“Un om Mare”]. The third story–Eliade’s [“Twelve Thousand Head of Cattle”]–is a colorful conversation piece about Bucharest in the days of the 1944 bombing.”
Jurnalul SF, #72-73, ed. Adrian Bănuță (Intact, 1994).
“The House” by Mihail Grămescu
“Within the Circle. Closer and Closer” by Vladimir Colin
“Psycho 23” by Petrică Sîrbu
“Loser” by Cătălin Ionescu
“Daily Hunger” by Ovidiu Bufnilă
“Blitz” by Sebastian A. Corn
“Madia Mangalena (beyond hate)” by Michael Haulică
“Thérapie de choc avec des effets secondaires” by Dănuț Ivănescu
Twelve: A Romanian Science-Fiction Anthology, edited by Cornel Robu, various translators (Sedona Publishing House, 1995).
(see my review here)
“Igor’s Mannequin” by Victor Papilian, tr Virgil Stanciu
A mad-scientist story about a Russian researcher who believes that just before death, a person’s retina captures the image of the individual they love most. In order to prove this, the scientist stuns convicts, plucks out their eyeballs, and uses a special camera to take a photo just before he kills them.
“Les Trois Grâces” by Mircea Eliade, tr Mihaela Avramut
A scientist suspects that cancerous cells might actually hold the key to human rejuvenation, but when his lab is shut down by the government, he leaves three women trapped in a cycle of growing old in the fall and winter and then younger in the spring and summer.
“Tristan’s Last Avatar” by Vladimir Colin, tr Mihaela Avramut
An alchemist, hunted by the king of France because he hasn’t produced enough gold, escapes into the fourth dimension and travels through time.
“The Neuhof Treaty” by Ovid D. Crohmălniceanu, tr Ioana Robu
When one man realizes that he’s become invincible, scientists realize that either superintelligent microbes, nanobots, or something else is inhabiting his body.
“Algernon’s Escape” by Gheorghe Săsărman, tr Virgil Stanciu
A rat infected with a “genius virus” escapes from a lab and infects the surrounding population, turning only those with low intelligence and blunt sensibilities into petty dictators and evil geniuses.
“The Judges” Mircea Opriță, tr Linda Harris-Marcos and Ioana Robu
A scientist is on the cusp of a major discovery about transforming water into a viscous substance when two men from the future appear in his lab and order him to stop his work. Apparently, his discovery leads to future apocalypse.
“Prosthesosaurs” by Gheorghe Păun, tr Linda Harris-Marcos and Ioana Robu
More and more people are being kept alive via artificial organs, and the industry that produces them has a major interest in keeping that business booming.
“Phenotype of Mist and Drops of Nothing” by Mihail Grămescu, tr Linda Harris-Marcos and Ioana Robu
A new gadget gives people the ability to capture a bit of the soul/life energy of another person.
“Haustoria” by Lucian Ionică, tr Dana Andreea Chetrinescu
A man dissatisfied with his life volunteers for an experiment that will temporarily turn him into a vegetal host.
“Omohom” by Cristian Tudor Popescu, tr Ioana Robu
On a distant planet, a mysterious machine blunts peoples’ intelligence and the evolution of the society in order to guard against internal strife and self-destruction. The result is a deadening stasis.
“Modern Martial Arts” by Alexandru Ungureanu, tr Linda Harris-Marcos (also in Nemira ’94)
Martial arts competitors fight via clones of themselves that disappear minutes after the competition ends. One clone, though, refuses to go quietly.
“The Shakespeare Variant” by Silviu Genescu, tr Antuza and Silviu Genescu
A computer onboard a spacecraft bound for one of Uranus’s moons starts believing that it is Ophelia from Hamlet.
