Irina Zhadan

Adventures in St. Petersburg or Mouse on the Carpet Irina Zhadan

I have lived in the world for so many years, but I have not learned to think globally, I study small things, I contemplate the ordinary, I reflect on the simple. Pompous associations, which I tried so hard to teach in my school years, remained on the pages of works written in the spirit of the times when the inspired masses decided the fate of the world, the distraught rivers turned like drunken elephants backwards, and the cosmos was about to become the next stop of the tram. Gone are those years, after them - many more other years. Now it remains for me to sit on the river's bank of time and reflect. Tears dried up, resentment was forgotten, wounds healed. Am I still alive? What did I see in the luxurious realm of life, where I was once invited from non-existence, so that I rested before a long journey back?.. It seems that I, as the cat, familiar to my corner by the stove, only saw a mouse on the royal carpet. Only small things, and not the greatness of life, could be understood by my poor mind. Now that the hymns and pipes, the drums and the cries have ceased, small things are remembered, so sweet and simple. Perhaps it was this collection of little things that was my life.