Hutan Birch

Pada pagi kedua, kereta sudah berada 400 kilometer di timur Moskow.

On the second morning, the train was already 400 kilometres east of Moscow.

Polly terbangun di meja kecil. Cahaya lembut dan abu-abu. Galina, wanita yang lebih tua, sedang minum teh dari gelas dengan pegangan logam.

Polly woke on the small table. The light was soft and grey. Galina, the older woman, was drinking tea from a glass with a metal holder.

"Birch," katanya.

"Birches," she said.

Di luar, pohon-pohon putih melaju cepat dengan kecepatan enam puluh kilometer per jam. Mereka terus berlanjut. Mereka memenuhi seluruh pemandangan.

Outside, white trees were rushing past at sixty kilometres per hour. They went on and on. They filled the whole landscape.

Ini adalah sabuk birch Rusia. Pohon birch putih tumbuh di banyak tempat dingin di mana pohon lain tidak bisa.

This is the Russian birch belt. White birch grows in many cold places where other trees cannot.

Pemuda itu, Pavel, melihat ke atas. "Kamu seperti burung beo," katanya. Dia kembali ke laptopnya.

The young man, Pavel, looked up. "You are the parrot," he said. He went back to his laptop.

Galina menuangkan teh untuk Polly. Warnanya kuning keemasan. Sepotong lemon mengapung di atasnya. Samovar sudah panas selama dua belas jam.

Galina poured tea for Polly. It was amber. A slice of lemon floated on top. The samovar had been hot for twelve hours.

Polly menyesap sedikit. Rasanya panas dan manis.

Polly drank a sip. It was hot and sweet.

"Bagian terpanjang dari perjalanan ini adalah pohon-pohon," kata Galina. "Kamu duduk di kereta selama enam hari dan melihat pohon-pohon. Tidak ada habisnya."

"The longest part of this trip is the trees," Galina said. "You sit in a train for six days and look at trees. There is no end to them."

Empat puluh persen dari Rusia adalah hutan. Rusia memiliki dua puluh persen dari semua pohon di dunia.

Forty percent of Russia is forest. Russia has twenty percent of all the trees in the world.

Polly minum lagi. Pavel mengetik. Galina membaca bukunya. Di luar, pohon-pohon birch terus berlalu.

Polly drank again. Pavel typed. Galina read her book. Outside, the birches kept passing.