Jedno zrno soli

Posljednjeg jutra Polly je odletjela na sam vrh poluotoka, gdje gradu ponestaje kopna. Ondje na starom obalnom zidu, pokraj okrugle crkve, stoji mali bijeli svjetionik, a valovi dolaze sve do kamena. S rta je grad zaista izgledao kao brod: zvonik mu je bio jarbol, krovovi teret, a cijeli se pružao u Jadran i držao svoj kurs.

On her last morning Polly flew out to the very tip of the peninsula, where the town runs out of land. A small white lighthouse stands there on the old sea wall beside a round church, and the waves come right up to the stone. From the point the town really did look like a ship, the bell tower its mast, the roofs its cargo, the whole thing pushed out into the Adriatic and holding its course.

Ribarski brodovi napuštali su malu luku jedan za drugim, a motori su im tiho brujali na mirnoj vodi, dok je svaki za sobom vukao trag svjetla. Visoko gore zvono na tornju odbilo je sat, a zvuk se otkotrljao niz krovove i dalje preko mora. Na trgu je brončani violinist stajao sam na svom bijelom kamenu, i prvo sunce pronašlo je njega prije bilo čega drugog.

The fishing boats left the little harbour one by one, their engines a low murmur on the still water, each one trailing a line of light. Far above, the bell in the tower struck the hour and the sound rolled down over the roofs and out across the sea. In the square the bronze violinist stood alone on his white stone, and the first sun found him before it found anything else.

Polly je još osjećala okus jednog jedinog zrna soli na jeziku, ili joj se tako činilo, što je na isto izlazilo. More, sunce, drvene grablje i strpljive ruke, isti recept više od sedamsto godina, i grad ružičastih i oker kuća podignut od zarade. Čudno je graditi grad od nečega što se otapa na kiši. Još je čudnije što je uspjelo.

Polly still had the taste of a single grain of salt on her tongue, or thought she did, which came to the same thing. Sea, sun, wooden rakes and patient hands, the same recipe for more than seven hundred years, and a town of pink and ochre houses raised on the proceeds. It is a strange thing to build a town out of something that dissolves in the rain. It is stranger still that it worked.

Jednom je obletjela poluotok, nisko nad krovovima, pokraj čipkastih balkona, lavlje izlizane šape i toplog bijelog trga, a onda se podigla na jutarnjem vjetru. Iza nje kameni brod postajao je sve manji i nije se micao. Pred njom je more bilo otvoreno i blistavo, i imalo je, jedva primjetno, okus soli.

She circled the peninsula once, low over the roofs, past the lace balconies and the lion's worn paw and the warm white square, and then rose on the morning wind. Behind her the stone ship grew smaller and did not move. Ahead of her the sea was open and shining, and it tasted, very faintly, of salt.