Eastward from Ashkhabad my train lumbered across a region of oases where rivers dropped out of Iran to die in the Turcoman desert. In one window the Kopet Dagh mountains lurched darkly out of haze, and repeated themselves in thinning colours far into the sky. Beyond the other rolled a grey-green savannah, gashed with poppies. Over this immensity the sky curved like a frescoed ceiling, where flotillas of white and grey clouds floated on separate winds.
我乘坐的列車由阿什哈巴德駛出，一路向東，在土庫曼沙漠中的綠洲地區中緩慢行駛，源自伊朗的數條河流便在這裡匯集。透過一扇車窗，可以看到考匹特塔克山脈在黑色的迷霧中蜿蜒前行，若隱若現，其顏色隨著山勢的增高而變得模糊起來。另一扇車窗中，灰綠色草原綿延不絕，四處是凌亂的罌粟。天空在無垠的大地上盤鏇曲折，仿佛是一個刻有壁畫的天花板，密集的白雲和灰雲在空中隨著陣風飄移。
Once or twice under the foothills I glimpsed the mound of a kurgan, broken open like the lips of a volcano – the burial-place of a tribal chief, perhaps, or the milestone of some lost nomad advance. Along this narrow littoral, a century ago, the Tekke Turcomans had grazed their camels and tough Argamak horses, and tilled the soil around forty-three earthen fortresses. Now the Karakum canal ran down from the Oxus through villages with old, despairing names such as "Dead-End" and "Cursed-by-God", and fed collective farms of wheat and cotton.
在山麓小丘之下，我瞥見了一兩個墳頭，墳頭已經裂開，樣子與火山口相仿——也許，它是部落首領的埋葬之地，或者就是某個迷失的遊牧開拓者的一座里程碑。一個世紀之前，在這個濱海地區的沿岸，提基亞土庫曼人用泥土建立起43個堡壘，他們在周圍放牧駱駝和兇悍的阿葛馬克馬，並耕種土地。如今，卡拉庫姆運河自阿姆河順流而下，穿過那些以“死角”和“天譴”等古老、絕望的名字來命名的村子，灌溉著那些種有小麥與棉花的集體農場。
The train was like a town on the move. In its cubicles the close-tiered bunks were stacked with Russian factory workers and gangs of gossiping Turcomans. Grimy windows soured the world outside with their own fog, and a stench of urine rose from the washrooms. But a boisterous freedom was in the air. Everyone was in passage, lightly uprooted. They gobbled salads and tore at scraggy chicken, played cards raucously together and pampered each other's children, until the afternoon lunch-break lulled them into sleep. Then the stained railway mattresses were deployed over the bunks, and the corridor became a tangle of arms and projecting feet in frayed socks. From a tundra of sheets poked the beards of Turcoman farmers, and the weathered heads of soldiers resting on their caps. Matriarchs on their way to visit relatives in the next oasis lay mounded under blankets or quilted coats, and young women curled up with their children in their arms and their scarves swept over their faces.
這列火車就像一個移動的城鎮。車廂單間內，上下鋪位間的空間狹窄，上面全都擠滿了俄羅斯工人和成群唧喳不停的土庫曼人。污穢的車窗布滿了霧氣，使外面的景色模糊不清，洗手間更是飄來了小便後的惡臭。但空氣中瀰漫著放縱喧鬧的氣氛。人們全都是在旅行，似乎有點漂泊在外的味道。他們大口吞咽著沙拉，撕啃著骨多肉少的雞，一起大聲吆喝著玩著撲克，互相哄弄著彼此的小孩，直到下午，午休時間才使他們安靜下來，開始睡覺。之後，鋪位上紛紛鋪起污跡斑斑的列車床墊，走廊里頓時到處都是胳膊和露在外面、穿著破襪子的腳丫子。所有被單仿佛就是一片苔原，土庫曼農民把他們的鬍子露在了被單外面，而枕著帽子的士兵則把他們那飽受風霜之苦的腦袋露了出來。去下一個綠洲地區看親戚的老婦人們躺在毛毯里或棉大衣中，好似一座座小山丘，而年輕的婦人則蜷著身子，懷裡抱著孩子，並用她們的頭巾蓋住了自己的臉。