The Village Under the Storm

Polly had one place written down. "Can you tell me how to get there?" she asked the ewe at breakfast. Follow the coast road west, the ewe said. The Bay of Skaill is a long curve of pale sand. Behind it is a green shelf, and the village sits there, half sunk into the ground.

Polly alikuwa ameandika jina la mahali pamoja. "Waweza kuniambia jinsi ya kufika huko?" akamuuliza kondoo wakati wa kifungua kinywa. Fuata barabara ya pwani kuelekea magharibi, kondoo akasema. Ghuba ya Skaill ni mpindo mrefu wa mchanga mweupe. Nyuma yake kuna tuta la kijani, na kijiji kipo hapo, nusu yake ikiwa imezama ardhini.

An oystercatcher was working the site. Polly asked, "I would like to know the history of this particular monument." People lived here five thousand years ago, he said. They farmed this coast before Stonehenge and before the Great Pyramid. Then sand covered the village for four thousand years, until a storm in eighteen fifty took it away.

Ndege aina ya oystercatcher alikuwa akifanya kazi eneo hilo. Polly akauliza, "Ningependa kujua historia ya ukumbusho huu maalum." Watu waliishi hapa miaka elfu tano iliyopita, akasema. Walilima pwani hii kabla ya Stonehenge na kabla ya Piramidi Kubwa. Kisha mchanga ukakifunika kijiji kwa miaka elfu nne, hadi dhoruba ya mwaka elfu moja mia nane na hamsini ilipouondoa.

The wind took half of that. "Could you please repeat that for me?" Polly asked. Every house has the same furniture in the same places. A hearth in the middle. Beds at each side. A stone dresser against the far wall. It is stone because there was no wood.

Upepo ulichukua nusu ya maneno hayo. "Tafadhali, waweza kunirudia hayo?" Polly akauliza. Kila nyumba ina samani zilezile mahali palepale. Jiko katikati. Vitanda pande zote mbili. Kabati la mawe kwenye ukuta wa mbali. Ni la mawe kwa sababu hapakuwa na mbao.

"Could you tell me if the museum is open tomorrow?" Polly asked. She knew she would come back. She stood at the edge of one house, looking into a room laid out the way anyone lays out a room.

"Waweza kuniambia kama jumba la makumbusho litafunguliwa kesho?" Polly akauliza. Alijua atarudi. Alisimama kwenye ukingo wa nyumba moja, akichungulia chumba kilichopangwa jinsi mtu yeyote apangavyo chumba.