The Circle and the Morning Boat

The Ring of Brodgar sits on a narrow neck of land between two lochs, which is the only reason it feels high. The stones stand in a circle about one hundred and four metres across, cut off from the moor by a ditch hacked into solid rock. It was raised between four and four and a half thousand years ago, and it is part of a world heritage site.

Ring of Brodgar ligger på en smal tange mellem to søer, og det er den eneste grund til, at den føles høj. Stenene står i en cirkel på omkring hundrede og fire meter i diameter, skåret fri af heden af en grøft hugget ned i massiv klippe. Den blev rejst for mellem fire og fire et halvt tusind år siden, og den er en del af et verdensarvsområde.

There were around sixty stones once. Thirty-six are standing now, and the gaps are as much of the shape as the stones are. Polly walked the ring the long way, on the outside, with heather to her knees and the light going flat and wide across the water on both sides. Nothing about it is arranged for a visitor. It was arranged for something else, and whatever that was is not recorded anywhere.

Der var omkring tres sten engang. Seksogtredive står der nu, og hullerne er lige så meget en del af formen som stenene. Polly gik ringen den lange vej rundt, udenom, med lyng til knæene og lyset, der lagde sig fladt og bredt ud over vandet på begge sider. Intet ved den er indrettet efter en gæst. Den var indrettet efter noget andet, og hvad det var, står ikke skrevet nogen steder.

Then the ordinary business of leaving. Back at the harbour office there was a shag behind a counter and a printed sheet on the wall. "What time does the ferry leave?" Polly asked. "How much does this cost?" She looked at the sheet with him while he found the line. "I would like to buy a ticket, please."

Så kom det almindelige ved at rejse. Tilbage på havnekontoret sad der en skarv bag en disk, og der hang et trykt ark på væggen. "Hvornår sejler færgen?" spurgte Polly. "Hvad koster det?" Hun kiggede på arket sammen med ham, mens han fandt linjen. "Jeg vil gerne købe en billet, tak."

"How long does the crossing take?" she asked last, and put the ticket away. In the morning the boat pulled out past the same low headland it had come in by, and the islands went down behind it in the order she had learned them: a town on one street, a bay with a village in it, a chapel made of huts, a rock full of seals, and inland, out of sight from the water, a circle with most of its stones still up.

"Hvor lang tid tager overfarten?" spurgte hun til sidst og lagde billetten væk. Om morgenen gled båden ud forbi det samme lave næs, den var kommet ind ved, og øerne sank bag den i den rækkefølge, hun havde lært dem: en by på én gade, en bugt med en landsby i, et kapel af barakker, en klippe fuld af sæler, og inde i landet, ude af syne fra vandet, en cirkel med de fleste af sine sten stadig oprejst.