Abela Caine

by Oliviu Crâznic

Morning gray on her manor,

My falling star;

The heart beats close to the dagger,

And here you are.

(here you are)

The casement, the stairway, the bedroom, the scarlet, the love…

White is the dress she is wearing – and white is the dove.

Veiled sign in the fanlight,

Salt on her lips;

The eye cannot trap the reflection,

And reason slips.

The angel, the heavens, the nightmare, the crossroad, the other god…

Red are the flowers I’m staining – and red is the blood.

Cobwebs of time on our autumn,

My omen undone;

The fairy bleeds out of the tale,

And now you are gone.

(you are gone)

About the author:

OLIVIU CRÂZNIC is a Romanian (Transylvanian) national and international awarded novelist, poet, translator, literary critic, anthologist, conferee, current member of “Imagicopter: The Author/Artist Cooperative” and legal advisor. Born in 1978; his parents, Oliviu and Dorothea, are both certified and distinguished Romanian Language and Literature teachers.  He graduated from Faculty of Law – University of Bucharest with  a thesis on Forensic Science (2001) and from Pro Medierea Association`s Conflict Resolution course (2008). His literary career began in 2010, when he published the celebrated Gothic novel …And Then the Nightmare Came at Last (Vremea Publishing House). His short stories and novellettes were published alongside those of famous contemporary (George R.R. Martin) or classic (Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert E. Howard, Rudyard Kipling, H.P. Lovecraft, Guy de Maupassant, Saki) writers. In 2015, he published the acclaimed short story collection The Witching Hour (Crux Publishing House). He is mentioned in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (J. Clute, P. Nicholls) and literary analysis on his works appeared in academic journals such as Equinox Journal (Faculty of Letters, “Babeș-Bolyai” University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania). He appeared in Ciprian Mitoceanu`s novellette The Redemption (as a literary character) and on the Travel Channel show Expedition Unknown (as a vampire expert). He was invited to speak on various literary themes and topics at Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literature – University of Bucharest, at Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures – “Dimitrie Cantemir” Christian University (alongside Ana-Maria Negrilă, PhD), and at Romanian Academy (Romanian Committee for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology). He acted as the moderator of Bucharest International Literature Festival – special Science Fiction & Fantasy evening (2014) and led (alongside literary critic and writer Alexandra Medaru) the public lecture The Impact of Fantasy: From Gilgamesh to “Game of Thrones” (2016). Author`s Official Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/oliviucraznicofficialpage.

“Oliviu Crâznic is a true Romantic, a character descended form his own extraordinary and spectacular prose, a melange of Baudelaire, Edgar Allan Poe and Walter Scott, crafting his art under the scrutinizing eyes of Bram Stoker and H.P. Lovecraft. Read his novel, read his stories, and you will completely understand my statement!” (Șt. Ghidoveanu, Radio România Cultural`s Science Fiction and Fantasy specialist, in Galileo Online, Nov. 2012)