Zona Waktu

Pada pagi keempat, kereta berada di suatu tempat di barat Novosibirsk. Polly memeriksa jam kecil di atas pintu kompartemen. Jam itu menunjukkan pukul 06:30. Jam tersebut belum diubah sejak Moskow. Semua jadwal kereta Trans-Siberia menggunakan waktu Moskow, sepanjang jalur, selama tujuh hari dan tujuh zona waktu. Tidak mungkin menjalankan kereta api melintasi delapan ribu kilometer jika setiap stasiun memiliki waktu yang berbeda.

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.

Namun, waktu lokal di luar jendela sekitar pukul 10:30. Matahari sudah terbit selama enam jam.

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

Ketidaksesuaian antara waktu kereta dan waktu luar ini, kata konduktor, adalah salah satu tantangan kecil mental dari perjalanan ini. Di Vladivostok, jam kereta akan menunjukkan satu hal dan matahari lokal akan menunjukkan sesuatu yang berbeda tujuh jam.

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.

Polly melompat turun dan mulai menjelajah.

Polly hopped down and went exploring.

Kereta makan berada tiga gerbong ke bawah. Setiap gerbong adalah terowongan panjang berpanel kayu. Para konduktor dengan seragam hijau duduk dengan kaki terangkat membaca koran di antara pemberhentian stasiun. Mereka tidak tampak terkejut melihat seekor burung beo. Kereta ini sudah melihat banyak hal.

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.

Kereta makan dicat merah pudar di luar, biru pucat di dalam. Tirai renda berat. Bilik kayu. Dapur kecil di ujung jauh. Polly bertengger di bilik kosong dekat jendela.

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.

Seorang pelayan dengan jaket yang sedikit kebesaran muncul dengan menu dalam bahasa Rusia, Inggris, dan Cina. Borscht. Pelmeni. Kaviar salmon. Pelayan itu mengambil kembali menu, lalu kembali dengan piring kecil setinggi Polly: roti, mentega, dan ikan haring gelap.

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.

"Compliments dari dapur," katanya dalam bahasa Inggris.

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

Ikan haring itu diasinkan dan beraroma tajam. Rotinya memiliki sedikit rasa asam dari fermentasi tiga hari. Menteganya tidak asin. Kombinasi ini adalah sesuatu yang telah dimakan orang Rusia di kereta jarak jauh selama seratus dua puluh tahun.

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.

Di luar jendela, taiga telah menipis menjadi padang rumput terbuka yang tinggi. Sekelompok sapi merumput di dekat rumah kayu kecil. Seorang pria dengan sepeda menunggu di perlintasan kereta api.

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.