Page 159 - Manual Vol 1

158

Ada Kaleh - A Love Story

ENGLISH / Engleza

A Love Story - ADA KALEH
By Mada CAZALI

"Piece by piece and brick by brick, the fortress of ADA KALEH was
moved to Şimian Island where, unfortunately, it is left in ruins by those who,
with or without their will, bury the wonderful history of these lands."
It's not one of Scheherazade’s stories stitched together throughout the
One Thousand and One Nights, although the two names seem to be taken from
that book.
Intensely prepared, my departure on the journey by the Kaptan boat
on the Danube to the Iron Gates dam could not be complete without the
presence of one of the descendants of those families displaced from the island
of legend. About the beautiful place, after the waters laid over like a cruel shell
covering a history of centuries, only a shy and cold inscription rising from a
shoulder of the Romanian bank of the river remembered it: ADA-KALEH
VIADUCT.
… The deck, armed with sunbeds and folding chairs, was waiting for
tourists to let themselves be comforted by the light breeze and the rustle of the
waves …
We both sit silently in a chair, by the double railing with faded paint in
layers, like the bark of a birch tree. Our thoughts wondering about where we
were going to.
My friend, Ada, was the first who broke the silence.
– You know, before it was covered by the Danube, the island hosted my small
steps... I was a child when my mother had carried me through the streets full of
chatter from the coffee houses in the street, where men - who all seemed to me
to be grandfathers because of their mustaches and red butts with black tassels –