Time Zones

On the fourth morning, the train was somewhere west of Novosibirsk. Polly checked the small clock above the compartment door. It read 06:30. The clock had not been changed since Moscow. All Trans-Siberian timetables run on Moscow time, the whole length of the line, for seven days and seven time zones. You cannot run a railway across eight thousand kilometres if every station has a different watch.

Četvrtog jutra, vlak je bio negdje zapadno od Novosibirska. Polly je pogledala mali sat iznad vrata kupea. Pokazivao je 06:30. Sat nije bio promijenjen od Moskve. Svi Transsibirski rasporedi voze po moskovskom vremenu, cijelom dužinom pruge, sedam dana i sedam vremenskih zona. Ne možete voditi željeznicu preko osam tisuća kilometara ako svaka stanica ima drugačiji sat.

Local time outside the window, however, was about 10:30. The sun had been up for six hours.

Lokalno vrijeme vani, međutim, bilo je oko 10:30. Sunce je bilo na nebu već šest sati.

This dislocation between train-time and outside-time was, the conductor had said, one of the small mental challenges of the journey. By Vladivostok the train clock would say one thing and the local sun would say something seven hours different.

Ova nepodudarnost između vremena u vlaku i vanjskog vremena bila je, kako je rekao kondukter, jedan od malih mentalnih izazova putovanja. Do Vladivostoka, sat u vlaku bi pokazivao jedno, a lokalno sunce nešto sedam sati drugačije.

Polly hopped down and went exploring.

Polly je skočila dolje i krenula istraživati.

The dining car was three carriages down. Each carriage was a long wood-panelled tunnel. The conductors in green uniforms sat with their feet up reading newspapers between station stops. They did not look surprised to see a parrot. The train had seen things.

Vagon-restoran bio je tri vagona dalje. Svaki vagon bio je dug drveni tunel. Kondukteri u zelenim uniformama sjedili su s nogama podignutim, čitajući novine između stanica. Nisu izgledali iznenađeno kad su vidjeli papigu. Vlak je već vidio svašta.

The dining car was painted faded red outside, pale blue inside. Heavy lace curtains. Wooden booths. A small kitchen at the far end. Polly perched at the empty booth by the window.

Vagon-restoran bio je izvana obojen izblijedjelom crvenom bojom, a iznutra blijedoplavom. Teške čipkaste zavjese. Drvene kabine. Mala kuhinja na krajnjem kraju. Polly je sjela u praznu kabinu kraj prozora.

A waiter in a slightly too-large jacket appeared with a menu in Russian, English, and Chinese. Borscht. Pelmeni. Salmon caviar. The waiter took the menu back, then returned with a small plate at Polly's height: bread, butter, and dark herring.

Konobar u malo prevelikom sakou pojavio se s jelovnikom na ruskom, engleskom i kineskom. Boršč. Pelmeni. Lososov kavijar. Konobar je uzeo jelovnik natrag, a zatim se vratio s malim tanjurom na Pollynoj visini: kruh, maslac i tamna haringa.

"Compliments of the kitchen," he said in English.

"Pohvala iz kuhinje," rekao je na engleskom.

The herring was salt-cured and pungent. The bread had a faint sourness from three days of fermentation. The butter was unsalted. The combination was a thing Russians had been eating on long-distance trains for a hundred and twenty years.

Haringa je bila soljena i intenzivnog mirisa. Kruh je imao blagu kiselost od tri dana fermentacije. Maslac je bio neslan. Kombinacija je bila nešto što su Rusi jeli na dugim putovanjima vlakom već stotinu i dvadeset godina.

Outside the window, the taiga had thinned into high open grassland. A herd of cows grazed near a small wooden house. A man on a bicycle waited at a level crossing.

Vani kroz prozor, tajga se prorijedila u visoku otvorenu travnatu ravnicu. Stado krava paslo je blizu male drvene kuće. Čovjek na biciklu čekao je na prijelazu.