The Jar

On the second morning, Chiara brought a glass jar to Pasta's tank. The jar had a screw lid. Inside the jar was a single live crab.

Asubuhi ya pili, Chiara alileta kopo la glasi kwenye tanki la Pasta. Kopo hilo lilikuwa na kifuniko cha kuzungusha. Ndani ya kopo kulikuwa na kaa mmoja hai.

Chiara held the jar above the water for a moment. Pasta watched. The octopus had been sitting in the same corner for forty minutes. Now her eye sharpened. One arm uncurled from the coil and stretched along the side of the tank.

Chiara alishikilia kopo juu ya maji kwa muda mfupi. Pasta alitazama. Pweza alikuwa amekaa kwenye kona ile ile kwa dakika arobaini. Sasa jicho lake lilikuwa makini. Mkono mmoja ulijikunja kutoka kwenye mzunguko na kunyoosha kando ya tanki.

Chiara dropped the jar into the water. It sank slowly. Pasta did not lunge. Octopuses, Chiara had told Polly, are not generally lungers. They are observers first.

Chiara aliachia kopo ndani ya maji. Lilizama polepole. Pasta hakurukia. Pweza, Chiara alimwambia Polly, kwa kawaida hawarukii. Kwanza wao ni watazamaji.

Polly perched on the tank rim with her glasses tilted at the water. She could see the crab inside the jar, scuttling against the glass. Pasta moved one arm out and touched the jar. Her skin was suckered all the way to the tip of that arm. The suckers had perhaps two hundred sensory cells each. "More than your tongue," Chiara said quietly. "An octopus arm tastes everything it touches."

Polly alikaa kwenye ukingo wa tanki akiwa na miwani yake imeinamia maji. Aliweza kuona kaa ndani ya kopo, likijikokota dhidi ya glasi. Pasta alisogeza mkono mmoja na kugusa kopo. Ngozi yake ilikuwa na vikombe vya kunyonya hadi kwenye ncha ya mkono huo. Vikombe hivyo vilikuwa na labda seli za hisia mia mbili kila kimoja. "Zaidi ya ulimi wako," Chiara alisema kwa sauti ya chini. "Mkono wa pweza huonja kila kitu unachogusa."

Pasta gathered the jar with a second arm. The two arms turned it, slowly. Polly could see the third arm coming around the back of the jar now, exploring the lid.

Pasta alikusanya kopo kwa mkono wa pili. Mikono miwili ilikigeuza, polepole. Polly aliweza kuona mkono wa tatu ukizunguka nyuma ya kopo sasa, ukichunguza kifuniko.

This is a well-documented behaviour. Octopuses have been opening screw-top jars in research labs since the 1950s. Some can do it in less than a minute. The first time a new octopus encounters a jar, it usually takes ten or fifteen minutes of exploration. They are not solving the problem the way a human would. They are not thinking in steps. They are letting the suckers feel the threads and then turning the lid the way the threads pull.

Hii ni tabia iliyorekodiwa vizuri. Pweza wamekuwa wakifungua makopo yenye vifuniko vya kuzungusha katika maabara za utafiti tangu miaka ya 1950. Wengine wanaweza kufanya hivyo chini ya dakika moja. Mara ya kwanza pweza mpya anapokutana na kopo, kawaida huchukua dakika kumi au kumi na tano za uchunguzi. Hawatatui tatizo kama binadamu. Hawafikirii kwa hatua. Wanaruhusu vikombe vyao kuhisi nyuzi na kisha kugeuza kifuniko jinsi nyuzi zinavyovuta.

Pasta turned the lid one half-rotation. Then another. The lid popped free. The crab inside, sensing the change in water pressure, scrambled out of the jar and into the open water.

Pasta aligeuza kifuniko nusu mzunguko. Kisha mwingine. Kifuniko kilifunguka. Kaa ndani, kikihisi mabadiliko ya shinikizo la maji, kilitoka kwenye kopo na kuingia kwenye maji wazi.

It did not get far. Pasta's fourth arm was already curled at the jar's mouth. The crab vanished into a soft white opening that Polly realised, after a moment, was the octopus's beak. The crab made a small click. Then nothing.

Hakikuenda mbali. Mkono wa nne wa Pasta ulikuwa tayari umejikunja kwenye mdomo wa kopo. Kaa lilitoweka kwenye mdomo mweupe laini ambao Polly alitambua, baada ya muda, ulikuwa mdomo wa pweza. Kaa lilitoa mlio mdogo. Kisha kimya.

The jar sank empty to the bottom of the tank.

Kopo lilizama tupu hadi chini ya tanki.

Chiara wrote something on a clipboard. "Three minutes forty-two seconds," she said. "She is getting fast. The first time we gave her a jar, it took her eleven minutes."

Chiara aliandika kitu kwenye ubao wa klipu. "Dakika tatu na sekunde arobaini na mbili," alisema. "Anazidi kuwa haraka. Mara ya kwanza tulipompa kopo, ilimchukua dakika kumi na moja."

Polly tilted her red head at Pasta. The octopus was already returning to the coil of pipe. Her arms wrapped themselves around herself. Her eye, for one long moment, met Polly's. Then it closed slowly.

Polly alitikisa kichwa chake chekundu kwa Pasta. Pweza alikuwa tayari anarudi kwenye mzunguko wa bomba. Mikono yake ilijizungusha yenyewe. Jicho lake, kwa muda mrefu, lilikutana na la Polly. Kisha lilifunga polepole.

It is hard to overstate how strange an octopus is, Chiara said, gathering her things. They are mollusks. They are more closely related to a snail than to anything with a backbone. They have three hearts. Their blood is blue, because it carries oxygen using copper instead of iron. They live, in the wild, only about three to five years. Pasta was already two. She had perhaps two years of life left, no matter how good she got at the jar.

Ni vigumu kuelezea jinsi pweza alivyo wa ajabu, Chiara alisema, akikusanya vitu vyake. Wao ni moluska. Wana uhusiano wa karibu zaidi na konokono kuliko kitu chochote chenye uti wa mgongo. Wana mioyo mitatu. Damu yao ni ya buluu, kwa sababu inabeba oksijeni kwa kutumia shaba badala ya chuma. Wanaishi, porini, kwa miaka mitatu hadi mitano tu. Pasta tayari alikuwa na miaka miwili. Alikuwa na labda miaka miwili ya maisha iliyobaki, haijalishi jinsi alivyokuwa mzuri kwenye kopo.

In that time, Chiara had said, she would learn everything she would ever know.

Katika muda huo, Chiara alisema, angejifunza kila kitu ambacho angewahi kujua.