Built From What They Had

The chapel on Lamb Holm is two army huts end to end, which is the first thing anyone notices and the last thing anyone remembers. A caretaker was unlocking it when Polly arrived, an unhurried man with a ring of keys. "What is your job?" she asked him, and he said he opened the doors in the morning, closed them at night, and repainted what the salt air took off in between.

Kapelica na otočiću Lamb Holm dvije su vojne barake spojene jedna za drugom, i to je prvo što svatko primijeti i zadnje čega se itko sjeća. Kad je Polly stigla, čuvar ju je upravo otključavao, nežuran čovjek sa svežnjem ključeva. „Čime se bavite?” pitala ga je, a on je rekao da ujutro otvara vrata, navečer ih zatvara, a između toga prelakirava ono što slani zrak skine.

Inside, the huts disappear. Italian prisoners of war were brought here in the nineteen forties to work on the sea barriers, and they asked for somewhere to worship. What they got was corrugated metal. What they made of it was a vaulted ceiling, a stone chancel, a wrought iron screen and a painted altarpiece, and one of them, a painter named Domenico Chiocchetti, led the work.

Iznutra barake nestaju. Talijanski ratni zarobljenici dovedeni su ovamo četrdesetih godina dvadesetog stoljeća da rade na morskim branama, i zamolili su za mjesto na kojem će se moliti. Dobili su valoviti lim. Od njega su načinili svođeni strop, kameno svetište, kovanu željeznu pregradu i oslikanu oltarnu palu, a radove je vodio jedan od njih, slikar Domenico Chiocchetti.

"What do you need to complete the work?" is the question the camp had to answer. They asked for cement, and were given cement. Everything else came out of what the camp was throwing away. The screen is scrap iron worked cold. The candle holders are corned beef tins. The stone of the chancel is plasterboard, painted so carefully that you have to lean in before it admits what it is.

„Što vam treba da dovršite posao?” bilo je pitanje na koje je logor morao odgovoriti. Tražili su cement i dobili cement. Sve ostalo izašlo je iz onoga što je logor bacao. Pregrada je hladno obrađeno staro željezo. Svijećnjaci su limenke od goveđe konzerve. Kamen svetišta je gipsana ploča, oslikana tako pažljivo da se moraš nagnuti prije nego što prizna što je.

The caretaker had left a small hand tool on the sill. "Could you show me how to use this tool?" Polly asked, and he did, and the explanation went past her the first time. "Could you explain that again?" He did that too. Then he went back to his paint, and Polly looked up at a ceiling that is flat metal pretending to be a curve, and holds the pretence from every seat in the room.

Čuvar je na prozorskoj dasci ostavio mali ručni alat. „Možete li mi pokazati kako se koristi ovaj alat?” pitala je Polly, i on jest, ali joj je objašnjenje prvi put promaklo. „Možete li mi to ponovno objasniti?” Objasnio je i to. Zatim se vratio svojoj boji, a Polly je podigla pogled prema stropu koji je ravan lim što se pretvara da je svod, i tu pretvorbu drži s bilo kojeg sjedala u prostoriji.