The Jar

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

Asubuhi ya pili, Chiara alileta kopo la kioo kwenye tanki la Pasta. Kopo lilikuwa na mfuniko wa kuzungusha. Ndani yake kulikuwa na kaa hai.

Chiara held the jar above the water. Pasta watched. One arm uncurled and stretched along the side of the tank.

Chiara alishikilia kopo juu ya maji. Pasta alitazama. Mkono mmoja ulijikunja na kunyoosha kando ya tanki.

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

Chiara aliachia kopo ndani ya maji. Lilizama polepole. Pasta hakurukia. Pweza, Chiara alisema, hawarukii. Kwanza ni watazamaji.

Polly perched on the tank rim. The crab scuttled against the glass inside the jar. Pasta touched the jar with one arm. Her suckers had two hundred sensory cells each. "An octopus arm tastes everything it touches," Chiara said.

Polly alikaa kwenye ukingo wa tanki. Kaa alikimbia kimbia dhidi ya kioo ndani ya kopo. Pasta aligusa kopo kwa mkono mmoja. Vinyonyo vyake vilikuwa na seli mia mbili za hisia kila moja. "Mkono wa pweza unaonja kila kitu unachogusa," Chiara alisema.

Pasta gathered the jar with a second arm. The two arms turned it slowly. A third arm came around the back to explore the lid.

Pasta alikusanya kopo kwa mkono wa pili. Mikono miwili iligeuza polepole. Mkono wa tatu ulizunguka nyuma kuchunguza mfuniko.

Octopuses have been opening screw-top jars in labs since the 1950s. The first time, it usually takes ten or fifteen minutes. They are not thinking in steps. They are letting the suckers feel the threads and turning the lid the way the threads pull.

Pweza wamekuwa wakifungua makopo ya kuzungusha kwenye maabara tangu miaka ya 1950. Mara ya kwanza, kawaida huchukua dakika kumi au kumi na tano. Hawafikirii kwa hatua. Wanaruhusu vinyonyo kuhisi nyuzi na kugeuza mfuniko jinsi nyuzi zinavyovuta.

Pasta turned the lid one half-rotation. Then another. The lid popped free. The crab scrambled out into the open water.

Pasta aligeuza mfuniko nusu mzunguko. Kisha mwingine. Mfuniko ulifunguka. Kaa alikimbia nje kwenye maji wazi.

It did not get far. Pasta's fourth arm was already curled at the jar's mouth. The crab disappeared into the octopus's beak.

Hakuenda mbali. Mkono wa nne wa Pasta ulikuwa tayari umejikunja kwenye mdomo wa kopo. Kaa alitoweka kwenye mdomo wa pweza.

Chiara wrote something on a clipboard. "Three minutes forty-two seconds. 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. Anakuwa mwepesi. Mara ya kwanza tulipompa kopo, ilimchukua dakika kumi na moja."

Pasta returned to her coil of pipe. Her arms wrapped around herself.

Pasta alirudi kwenye mzunguko wake wa bomba. Mikono yake ilijizungusha.

Octopuses are very strange, Chiara told Polly. 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 with copper instead of iron. They live only three to five years in the wild. Pasta was already two. She would learn everything she would ever know in the time she had left.

Pweza ni viumbe wa ajabu sana, Chiara alimwambia Polly. Wana uhusiano wa karibu zaidi na konokono kuliko kitu chochote chenye uti wa mgongo. Wana mioyo mitatu. Damu yao ni ya buluu, kwa sababu hubeba oksijeni na shaba badala ya chuma. Huishi miaka mitatu hadi mitano tu porini. Pasta tayari alikuwa na miaka miwili. Angejifunza kila kitu atakachowahi kujua katika muda aliobaki nao.