One of my short stories. Second Prize at the Blue Spring Festival 2009. Translation - Letitia Goia, my very precious friend. CARNIVAL The month of August. Three days of carnival in Sighisoara. The drummer utters his callings among the milling crowd. The market of the fortified town is full of minstrels and profets, monks and clowns, knights and astrologers, soldiers and wizards, mimes and fortune-tellers, ghosts and apprentices, they all pack in front of the stands full of glass, jewellery, paintings and bric-a-brac, accompanied by the shrill sounds of lutes, whistles and the bagpipe. Jupiter comes out of teh Clock Tower holding a golden lightning. The market is so packed and still people are dancing. The marked place is packed and still a Turkish pasha wanders around on a white elephant. Nobody notices him. An emerald the size of...