Kuvuka Milima ya Ural

Asubuhi ya tatu, treni ilisimama Yekaterinburg. Galina alikuwa ameondoka usiku. Pavel alikuwa bado amelala. Abiria wawili wapya walikuwa wamechukua vitanda vilivyoachwa wazi: mwanajeshi wa miaka ishirini hivi aliyevaa sare safi sana, na mzee mwenye nywele za kijivu-njano na sanduku la vifaa vya uvuvi.

On the third morning, the train stopped at Yekaterinburg. Galina had already left in the night. Pavel was still asleep. Two new passengers had taken the empty bunks: a soldier of perhaps twenty in a uniform too clean to have been worn yet, and an older man with grey-yellow hair and a fishing tackle box.

Polly aliruka hadi dirishani.

Polly hopped to the window.

Yekaterinburg ni mji mkubwa zaidi katika Milima ya Ural. Milima ya Ural inagawanya Ulaya na Asia. Si mirefu, zaidi ni kama safu ndefu iliyochakaa kuliko ukuta. Lakini ni ya zamani. Miaka milioni mia tano iliyopita, Ural tayari ilikuwa safu kubwa ya milima. Imechakaa kwa nusu bilioni ya miaka na bado ipo. Ni baadhi ya milima ya zamani zaidi duniani.

Yekaterinburg is the largest city in the Urals. The Ural Mountains divide Europe from Asia. They are not high, more a long worn ridge than a wall. But they are old. Five hundred million years ago, the Urals were already a major mountain range. They have been worn down for half a billion years and are still there. They are some of the oldest mountains on Earth.

Treni ya Trans-Siberian inapita Ural kupitia Yekaterinburg. Kuna alama ndogo katika kilomita 1,777 ya reli inayosema ULAYA upande mmoja na ASIA upande mwingine. Kondakta alimwambia Polly, kwa tabasamu dogo, kwamba alama hiyo ni uvumbuzi wa watalii. Mpaka halisi, kijiografia, haupo katika sehemu safi. Mstari wa kugawanya unakimbia takribani kando ya bonde la Mto Ural.

The Trans-Siberian crosses the Urals through Yekaterinburg. There is a small marker at kilometre 1,777 of the line that says EUROPE on one side and ASIA on the other. The conductor told Polly, with a small smile, that the marker was a tourist invention. The real border, geographically, was not at a clean point. The dividing line runs roughly along the watershed of the Ural River.

Lakini kuvuka kwa alama ilikuwa jambo muhimu.

But the symbolic crossing was the point.

Abiria mpya mwenye sanduku la vifaa vya uvuvi alifungua na kuweka mitego yake mezani. Aliipanga kwa rangi.

The new passenger with the tackle box opened it and laid out his lures on the table. He arranged them by colour.

"Unavua wapi?" Polly aliuliza.

"Where do you fish?" Polly asked.

Alitazama juu. "Ziwa Baikal," alisema. "Katika siku tatu. Omul. Samaki wa Baikal. Hautaupata mahali pengine popote duniani." Alionyesha kijiko cha kijani na fedha. "Hii ndiyo ninayotumia."

He looked up. "Lake Baikal," he said. "In three days. Omul. The salmon of Baikal. You will not find it anywhere else in the world." He pointed at a green-and-silver spoon. "This is what I use."

Masaa machache baadaye, karibu na Pervouralsk, treni ilipunguza mwendo karibu na obelisk ndogo nyeupe katika uwazi. ULAYA upande mmoja. ASIA upande mwingine. Watalii watatu walipunga mkono kwa treni. Pavel aliinua mkono mmoja kutoka kwenye kompyuta yake mpakato na kupunga mkono.

A few hours later, near Pervouralsk, the train slowed past a small white obelisk in a clearing. EUROPE on one side. ASIA on the other. Three tourists waved at the train. Pavel lifted one hand from his laptop and waved back.

Obelisk iliteleza mbali. Treni ilikuwa imevuka bara kama vile unavyoweza kuvuka barabara ndogo.

The obelisk slid away. The train had crossed a continent the way you might cross a small street.