Dagon Khin Khin Lay - Moedeva

It was early spring. We had been on the train for two days and one night, suffering. The passengers who had been on the short journey had been getting on and off without stopping. However, three other passengers had started from the town where the train had started. One was an old woman, not young in age, and not very pretty. She was always smoking a big cigarette, wearing a long man's coat and a small, straw hat. Her face showed that she had suffered a long time. The old woman's friend was a talkative man of about forty. He was shining with new clothes and new clothes. The other one was trembling as he walked. He was not very old, but his curly hair was graying for his age. His eyes, however, were not fixed on anything, but were looking around aimlessly. I sat alone, not mixing with other passengers.

The clothes he wore were the work of a high-class tailor, and his collar and cap were very elegant and well-proportioned. The buttons under his coat were loose, so that it was obvious that he was wearing an undershirt, and his shirt was embroidered with flowers. He would occasionally cough or laugh. He was especially careful not to make friends with his fellow travelers. When his fellow travelers began to make friendly remarks, he would give short answers, read to himself, or stare out of the door. Or he would eat food from an old bag and drink tea. I thought that he was very unhappy being alone like this. So I tried to talk to him several times. However, since he and I were sitting face to face, we made eye contact several times, but he would just turn away, reading his book intently or looking out the door.

On the evening of the second day, our train stopped at a large station, and the trembling man got off the train to get some hot water for tea. The man in the new clothes went down to the cafeteria with his lady companion to have tea. He was a lawyer, I later learned. When the men got off the train, many passengers joined our carriage. One of the passengers had a clean-shaven beard and looked like an old merchant. He wore a long fur coat with a fringe on his forehead, and his head was covered with a large brim. He sat down opposite the lawyer and his lady companion, and began to talk to a young man who looked exactly like the store clerk who had come up behind him.

I was sitting in the corner of the carriage opposite them. The train was at a standstill at that time, and when there were no people walking on the sidewalk, I could hear them talking. The merchant began to announce that he was going to the fields near the station he was going to. Then they talked about the grain market, trade, and the business going on in Moscow, which was usually connected with such news. Then they talked about the Nizhny Novgorod market. The clerk began to talk about the drinking parties and the riots that had taken place there by a wealthy merchant, but the merchant did not let the boy finish his words and interrupted him to tell about the drinking parties he had himself participated in at the Kunaban market long ago. He spoke proudly of his participation in those events. He once told me that he had been in a quarrel with the merchant who had been mentioned in the Kunaban market, and that it was not proper to tell the story in private. Hearing this, the clerk in the shop burst into laughter, and the whole carriage was filled with noise. The merchant also laughed heartily. Not expecting to hear anything interesting from what they were saying, I got up from my seat and walked along the platform until the train left, intending to fight, towards the door. At the door, I saw the lawyer and his lady companion getting back into the carriage. They were talking with great interest.

"You won't have time. I'm going to ring the second bell," the talkative lawyer told me.

He was right. I had just reached the end of the train and the second bell rang. I returned to my own train and found the lawyer and his lady companion still talking about the same subject as before. The merchant, however, sat opposite them, staring straight ahead, his mouth often pursed in displeasure.

"Then the woman told her husband, 'You and I can't live together anymore. I don't want to anymore,'" the lawyer said with a smile on his face as I walked past him.

I could not hear the rest of the conversation. When I reached my place, other travelers were already boarding. Then, after the gatekeepers, came the porters and a coolie. Their voices were so loud that I could not hear what they were saying clearly.

When the noise of the din had died down and the lawyer had spoken, he realized that the subject they were discussing had shifted from personal matters to public matters. The lawyer was saying that people all over Europe were now taking the matter seriously and considering it, that even in Russia divorce was being granted more often than before, and so on. After a moment, he remembered that he was the only person in the train talking loudly, so he stopped talking and turned to the man...

"I'm sure it wasn't like that in the past. Yes, isn't it?" he said with a smile.

The merchant was about to answer, and as the train started to depart, he took off his cap, made the sign of the cross with his hands, and prayed in a low voice. The lawyer turned away and waited politely until the gentleman had finished praying. At the end of the prayer, the gentleman made the sign of the cross three times, took the cap, pressed it well on his head, and sat down again, and continued speaking.

"It was there in the past. It's not as common as it is now. But now there's no other way. People have become very intelligent."