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The Phanariot Manuscript
27
through the most fragile
part of their flesh, teaching
them to enjoy the pains of
passion and the poison of a
sigh.
But no matter the changes
they go through, there is no
one who can resist falling
into a prolonged euphoria.
In Bucharest there are no
worries, nor any lengthy
melancholia, which explains
even the name of this happy
town, like a bell in the winter
snows
1
.
TheGreeksofFener,knowing
the way well, took out their
gold from the cellars, from
the foundations of their
homes, from under heaps
of old things and junk which
covered theneighbourhood,
trying to convince the
Sultan to give them the
throne of Bucharest for any
1 n.t. Bucuresti – from bucurie = joy
period of time, no matter
how short. The fame of the
city spread from one end of
the Ottoman Empire to the
other, so that there was not
a single person who didn’t
know that Bucharest was
the city where dreams come
true. In the coffee houses of
Istanbul a true elitist trade
developed because it was
here that the most stylish
merchants auctioned their
goods, with greyhounds
from Moldova, falcons from
Bucharest and Wallachian
children reaching very high
prices.