JOSEPH
BRODSKY
189
But the little scarf?
From Hermes.
Hot meal!
What've we got today, Matilda? Peking duck, Szechuan prawns, Hunan
piglet, and dumplings.
Chinese again.
Don't be picky, Petrovich.
Yeah, it's awfully tasty.
The main thing is variety.
The main, the second, the third.
But I'm not being picky. Simply it's torture to eat with chopsticks.
What's wrong with that? It used to be your forte.
Guuuustav'
Still, what a variety.
Agastronomical version of democracy, come to think of it.
That's why they are not rushing in with the political one.
We, too, though we go for the low-caloric version.
Right. Just imagine a parliament over there , with that billion-strong
population. Whether you vote or not, what's the difference?
Yeah, imagine that you arc a minority. That eighty percent are for and
twenty against - still two hundred million.
And all use chopsticks. When you multiply by two you end up with four
hundred million chopsticks for the minority only.
Maybe we should sell them timber to make chopsticks, eh, Gustav?
Impossible, Basil Modestovich. The country would go bald in a year.
Besides, we haven't got enough people for it. Even if the process were
mechanized. Not to mention doing it by hand, though hand work is bet–
ter paid. Theoretically.
Matches, then, perhaps?
Matches is Swedish monopoly.
And besides not all Chinese smoke.
