unfortunately this translation is terrible, carried out as it is by a petit-bourgeois american pig with no class consciousness. Segall, in attempting to downplay the lower class provenance of these stories and simultaneously sanding down their rough edges, completely misses the folklorical imperative that I suspect Ispirescu had in mind. the resulting fairy tales are not unreadable; Youth Without Age and Life Without Death even brought me close to tears. their strengths shine through, but only in spite of the insipid language used. I expected this from an American translating Eastern European writing. Ispirescu has enough cultural capital that I hope I can find a translation of his work into English by a Romanian. we owe a massive debt to archivists like Ispirescu, John Campbell, and countless others who recognized what was being lost when the stories of the people were no longer valued.

here is the overview that Segall gives of the publication history of the included stories:

As early as 1862, Ispirescu published a few popular tales in the Țăranul Român (the Roumanian Peasant). These he collected in the same year in a small brochure under the title Basme și Poveștĭ Populare (Popular Tales and Stories). In 1872, 1874, and 1876 there appeared, in three instalments, his well-known collection Legende saŭ Basmele Românilor, which in 1882 and then again in 1892 were issued by him in one volume. These last two, however, do not contain all the tales of the earlier editions. It is from the 1892 edition of the Legende saŭ Basmele Românilor that the tales here rendered into English have been taken.

and here are the seven stories collected in this volume:

All Romanian spelling (including accents) are recreated directly from Segall’s collection and may contain errors that originate with him.