Speaking In Tongues
Guided by Voices

(Idyll X)

IN A PUBLIC PLACE

by Raphael Levchin





The ugly table. Pizza. Two Polish girls.
Nobody is talking.
Twenty minutes, twenty-five minutes. Silence.


"Well", say I, "the Polish word 'zapamentay'
means 'forget it', correct?"


"No", answers the first girl, "it means
'remember'. 'Forget it' in polish sounds 'zapomne'."


"Ah, you know, 'zapomne' in Russian is 'remember'!"


"Really?", the second girl, politely.


Nobody smiles. Silence again.