Bunissima

We don’t have many myths. We are a poor people in that but I am sure that if we tried harder we could find out that there is more to it.
Think destiny, think fatality. This is what characterises the Romanian people.

Maybe the younger generations are changing (even though I heard a girl at the pool saying that what’s written for you it is going to happen no matter what, she was very loud about it too). In here God is everywhere. People do not go to church ever so often though. The “Sunday clothes” no longer exist, people do not take the weekly Sunday bath any more. Instead there are shiny disco clothes, shiny street clothes, cell phones and lots of personal goods value. But Romanians are still very, very faithful. Even if they are crazy about making fun and lauging at other people’s misfortune, about being mean sometimes and about pretty much what comes with a modern society, Romanians are like a rock when it comes about God. If they make mistakes, god is good enough to forgive them. Don’t get me wrong, I am not against modern society. You can’t be, unless you are my grandma and can’t understand why tight jeans are a must. I am not even talking about god here. Just about fatality.

One of our fundamental myths is about fatality. About how you cannot avoid your “destiny”. The story is simple: the shepherd hears from his faithful sheep that his other two shepherd companions want to kill him and take all his sheeps. Instead of fighting and trying to run, he accepts his destiny. In the whole, his testament is in fact an allegory of the death-wedding perspective, so common in Romania (they used to dress the young unmarried dead in bridal clothes, because they thought thay they will get married in the other world, le monde d’au dela).
It is not beyond reason why people choose to be so fatal-oriented. People have always gathered around the axis mundi that represented safety. It is so hard to understand that thers is nothing out there to control your life, because life is so complicated and so full of unknown threats everyday.

I do not believe in fatality, in the so-it-was-written thingy. No one can prove this exists. Just like belief, it is a matter of belief. But what makes the most sense, is that nothing is “written.” Where is it written? What happens is indeed a cumulation of facts, events, and people’s personal decisions and wishes, and sometimes you just cannot avoid this. That’s what a society is. An individual makes his own decisions and takes actions, but they are always reflected into other people’s decisions and actions. And I don’t mind if anyone thinks things are different. We are all free to have oppinions.

What bugs me though, is this fatal spirit of Romanians. “What is written for you, it’s branded on your forehead”. This is not true. Choice is a choice is a choice. Good and evil is all inside you. You have the power to decide. Ignorance and le mal esprit cna, of corse can be a factor, but that was not your choice, unless you realized you had it. Think well, what are the wishes that did not come true? Why is that? Maybe you did not want it really hard enough. When you want something, it is you who fight for it, and no one else. When you doubt, anything will be broken in half, between wish and fear. It is one or the other. It is the good and the evil. It is all inside you. All it matters is you have the choice.

I mean, I understand that, being a simple tranlsator is hard. You don’t always know all the cultural and cuisine stuff form around the world, but, I mean, some things are just simple. This job trains your ear so you get everything people say in a foreign language (you know, sounds, words), especially if you can rewind, even if you don’t understand what it means. Please do not translate “guacamole” as “aguamole” and “banana split” as “banana flips.” Kthanks.