Trafika Europe 8 - Romanian Holiday

The Phanariot Manuscript

a kalimavkion of the same fabric which he insisted on havinguntil itwasdiscovered and passed from hand to hand from the clothes room, through two hallways and, finally, through the small room where the old usher lived out his days. It was a light green kalimavkion, not too tall, but its elegance was in the brick-coloured edge, slightly risen like a royal crown. Doicescu looked into the mirror to watch as the hairpiece disappeared under the small hat and he checked his nape that looked like a peeled potato. A thin scarf placed around his neck, white like the fluff of a gander – and he was ready. Out the window one could see the branches of the

apricot tree. A leaf of ice entered his arteries. There was but one sadness in the life of Dan Braşoveanu Doicescu at that point. And it was quickly approaching from the Şerban Vodă mahala to halt alongside the Colţea Church, at his bedroom window. _____

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