The Amur

On the sixth morning, the train was running through the Russian Far East. The taiga had changed character again. The dominant trees now were Korean pine, Manchurian ash, and Mongolian oak. The forest felt closer, somehow, even from the train. Smaller trees, more variety, a tangle of vines on the lower trunks. This was the temperate rainforest of the Russian Far East, one of the wettest forests in the world outside the tropics.

På den sjette morgenen kjørte toget gjennom det russiske fjerne østen. Taigaen hadde igjen skiftet karakter. De dominerende trærne nå var koreansk furu, manchurisk ask og mongolsk eik. Skogen føltes nærmere, på en måte, selv fra toget. Mindre trær, mer variasjon, et virvar av vinranker på de nedre stammene. Dette var den tempererte regnskogen i det russiske fjerne østen, en av de våteste skogene i verden utenfor tropene.

Polly was alone in the compartment. Pavel had gotten off in Ulan-Ude two nights ago. The soldier had been transferred to a different carriage. Two more passengers had cycled through and gotten off at smaller stations. The new occupant of the upper bunk was a thin woman of perhaps fifty who slept most of the day and read at night.

Polly var alene i kupeen. Pavel hadde gått av i Ulan-Ude to netter tidligere. Soldaten hadde blitt overført til en annen vogn. To flere passasjerer hadde vært innom og gått av på mindre stasjoner. Den nye beboeren av den øvre køya var en tynn kvinne på kanskje femti som sov mesteparten av dagen og leste om natten.

A single freight train passed in the opposite direction. It was nearly two kilometres long. It was carrying timber. Polly counted thirty-eight flatbeds before she stopped counting.

Et enkelt godstog passerte i motsatt retning. Det var nesten to kilometer langt. Det fraktet tømmer. Polly telte trettiåtte flakvogner før hun sluttet å telle.

The train arrived at Khabarovsk in mid-morning. Khabarovsk sits on the Amur River, the eighth-longest river in the world, which forms much of the border between Russia and China. From the platform, Polly could see the river through the gap between two buildings. It was wide. It was the colour of strong tea. On the far bank, just visible through the haze, was China.

Toget ankom Khabarovsk på formiddagen. Khabarovsk ligger ved Amur-elven, den åttende lengste elven i verden, som utgjør mye av grensen mellom Russland og Kina. Fra plattformen kunne Polly se elven gjennom åpningen mellom to bygninger. Den var bred. Den hadde fargen av sterk te. På den andre bredden, bare synlig gjennom disen, lå Kina.

Polly hopped down to the platform. She walked the length of the train. It was good to use her legs.

Polly hoppet ned på plattformen. Hun gikk langs toget. Det var godt å bruke beina.

A Russian Far East crane was standing at the edge of a small marsh near the station yards. It was a black-and-white bird with red around its eye, almost two metres tall, watching the train with the patience of an animal that had seen many trains. Polly tilted her red head at it. The crane tilted its head back. Polly walked closer. The crane did not move.

En kran fra det russiske fjerne østen sto ved kanten av en liten myr nær stasjonsområdet. Det var en svart-hvit fugl med rødt rundt øyet, nesten to meter høy, som betraktet toget med tålmodigheten til et dyr som hadde sett mange tog. Polly vippet sitt røde hode mot den. Kranen vippet hodet tilbake. Polly gikk nærmere. Kranen beveget seg ikke.

The Russian Far East crane is one of the rarest cranes in the world. There are perhaps three thousand of them left, breeding mostly in the Amur basin. It has a long, careful courtship dance that takes hours and looks, to humans, like an act of grave dignity. The crane in front of Polly was not dancing. It was waiting.

Kranen fra det russiske fjerne østen er en av de sjeldneste kranene i verden. Det finnes kanskje tre tusen av dem igjen, som hekker mest i Amur-bassenget. Den har en lang, omstendelig kurtisedans som tar timer og ser, for mennesker, ut som en handling av dyp verdighet. Kranen foran Polly danset ikke. Den ventet.

A conductor blew a whistle. Polly hopped back to the train. She turned at the door and looked at the crane. The crane was still looking at her. Then it lifted its long neck very slowly and walked, in deliberate steps, away from her into the marsh.

En konduktør blåste i fløyta. Polly hoppet tilbake til toget. Hun snudde seg i døra og så på kranen. Kranen så fortsatt på henne. Så løftet den sin lange hals veldig sakte og gikk, i bestemte skritt, bort fra henne inn i myra.

The train pulled out of Khabarovsk and turned south. The Pacific was less than seven hundred kilometres away now. The forest outside the window grew denser. A river ran beside the tracks for an hour. Then it was gone.

Toget kjørte ut av Khabarovsk og svingte sørover. Stillehavet var nå mindre enn syv hundre kilometer unna. Skogen utenfor vinduet ble tettere. En elv rant ved siden av sporene i en time. Så var den borte.

In the dining car at lunch, the waiter brought Polly a small plate of pelmeni with sour cream, unasked. He had figured out, over the last three days, what she liked. The pelmeni were beef. The sour cream was sharp. The window of the dining car framed a line of dark hills on the horizon. The last range before the sea.

I spisevognen til lunsj, kom kelneren med en liten tallerken pelmeni med rømme til Polly, uten å bli spurt. Han hadde funnet ut, i løpet av de siste tre dagene, hva hun likte. Pelmeniene var av storfekjøtt. Rømmen var skarp. Vinduet i spisevognen rammet inn en rekke mørke åser i horisonten. Den siste fjellkjeden før havet.

The woman in Polly's compartment was reading the same book she had been reading every night, but now she was halfway through. The samovar was running. The train made its rhythm. Six days of it had become normal. Polly noticed that she had begun to feel, in some quiet way, that this train was where she lived.

Kvinnen i Pollys kupe leste den samme boken hun hadde lest hver natt, men nå var hun halvveis. Samovaren var i gang. Toget laget sin rytme. Seks dager av det hadde blitt normalt. Polly merket at hun hadde begynt å føle, på en stille måte, at dette toget var der hun bodde.