Ilija Trojanow: Game for a Zoo (excerpt in English)

Game for a Zoo

Building a zoo is no easy task. Not for a small town out in the province. Especially not these days. What we have to help build is socialism, says the party secretary—not a zoo! There’s no arguing with the man, even if all we’re talking about is a modest little pen with a few roe deer and a couple red stags, a few peacocks, some guinea fowl, mountain goats, and maybe a limping fox. So what are the odds of getting a real zoo, the kind I imagine day after day as I wipe down the wooden tables in the restaurant, eagerly waiting for spring to arrive, or as I sweep the floor dreaming of zebras and giraffes—and even an elephant when I’m cleaning out the gutter on the roof? When the first guests sit down on the patio overlooking the lake, order a beer, gaze at the craggy knolls and stretch their limbs out into the early summer, a lion scampers through my mind.

Translated by Philip Boehm
(source: Vilenica Almanac 2018)