Excerpts from "Imperium"

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Trans-Siberian, ‘58

The place of my second encounter with the Empire: far away, in the steppes and snows of Asia, in a barely accessible land whose entire geography bears alien and strange names — rivers called Argun, Unda, Chaykhar; mountains called Chingan, Ilchuri, Dzhagdy; and towns called Kilkok, Tungir, and Bukachacha. From these names alone one could compose resonant, exotic poems.

The Trans-Siberian Railway train, which set out the previous day from Beijing on its nine-day journey to Moscow, approaches from the direction of Harbin and enters the Soviet border station of Zabaikalsk. Drawing near any border heightens tension in us and stirs emotion. Human beings are not made for life in border situations; they avoid them or try to free themselves from them as quickly as possible. And yet a person encounters them everywhere, sees and feels them everywhere. Take an atlas of the world: nothing but borders. Of oceans and continents. Of deserts and forests. Of rainfall, monsoons, typhoons, arable land and wasteland, permafrost and peat bogs, shale and conglomerate. Add the distribution limits of Quaternary sediments and volcanic flows, basalt, chalk, and trachyte. We can see the boundaries of the Patagonian Shield and the Canadian Shield, the tropical and arctic climate zones, the erosional forms of river basins, the Adige and Lake Chad. The ranges of various mammals. Of various insects. Of various reptiles and amphibians, including the highly dangerous black cobra and the fearsome yet fortunately lethargic anaconda.

Pekin on kapuscinski.info

Excerpts from "Imperium"