An untold whisper from Born to Break the Spell
Podul de Piatră — The Bridge That Remembered
There are places that time forgets — and then there are places that remember you.
For me, Podul de Piatră wasn’t just a bridge.
It was a living artery of my childhood — humming with trolleybuses, whispers, and the heavy breath of a city learning how to survive.
Every morning, I would climb into that old trolleybus — its metallic scent, its squealing wires tracing invisible lines through the gray sky — and feel something awaken inside me.
It wasn’t freedom, not yet. But it was movement.
And sometimes, movement is the first taste of freedom a child can feel.
That trolleybus became more than a ride to school.
It became a metaphor for everything we couldn’t say —
for the quiet faces pressed to the glass,
and the people clutching empty shopping bags like hope itself.
I remember it as if it were yesterday — that day when I started singing on the bus: Podul de Piatră — The Stone Bridge.
I couldn’t roll my rs yet, so I sang it as:
“Podul de piatlă s-a dărâmat… a venit apa și l-a luat…”
An old children’s song echoed through my head as the trolleybus rattled through the city.
It was meant to be just a rhyme, a simple melody about rebuilding.
But even as a little girl, I felt it was something more — a song about resilience.
Every time I heard it, I imagined what it meant to build another bridge.
In my mind, I was flying in golden chariots above the water,
children all around me — laughing, helping,
their small hands lifting stones made of light.
Below us, the river shimmered — alive, forgiving,
carrying away everything heavy from before.
And when the bridge stood finished — tall and bright —
I always saw myself taking off again, inviting other kids to come along,
floating somewhere far beyond it,
to a land that felt like a fairytale and freedom — all imagined, never seen.
And today, I still wonder:
Where did those images come from?
Who placed them in the heart of that little girl —
dreaming of golden bridges before she even knew what freedom meant?
Even now, when I close my eyes, I can still hear the electric hum of that line.
It speaks of patience, resilience, and the sacred art of waiting —
not for rescue, but for awakening.
That’s what Born to Break the Spell truly is —
a return to those places that built me,
so I could finally give them a voice.
The bridge still stands.
The trolleybus is gone.
But the whisper it left behind… still hums through my soul.
— Sophy Le’coa 🌸
