Ngazi na Hadithi Yake

Kutoka juu vidato vilionekana vibaya. Kutoka kidato cha kwanza kushuka, vinaonekana vibaya zaidi. Vinaporomoka kwa mteremko unaokaribia ule wa ngazi iliyoegemezwa ukutani, na kwa kweli si ngazi za kawaida hata kidogo. Ni mfereji uliochongwa katika mwamba, wenye upana wa mlango mahali pengine na mwembamba zaidi mahali pengine, na bahari ikionekana kijani hafifu chini kabisa ya mwanya. Polly anarukaruka kushuka vidato vichache vya kwanza na kuvikuta havilingani. Kila kidato kina kimo tofauti kidogo.

From the top the steps looked bad. From the first one down, they look worse. They fall away at about the same angle as a ladder leaned against a wall, and they are not really a staircase at all. They are a groove cut into the rock, roughly as wide as a doorway in places and narrower in others, with the sea showing pale green at the bottom of the gap. Polly hops down the first few and finds them uneven. Every step is a slightly different height.

Kuna hadithi kuhusu mahali hapa, na kila mtu huisimulia. Katika mwaka elfu moja mia nne na ishirini, jeshi kutoka Aragon liliuzingira mji, na inasemekana askari wake walichonga ngazi hizi zote katika genge kwa usiku mmoja tu, kwa siri, ili wapande na kuiteka ngome kwa kushtukiza.

There is a story about this place, and everyone tells it. In the year fourteen twenty, an army from Aragon laid siege to the town, and its soldiers are said to have carved this entire staircase into the cliff in one single night, in secret, in order to climb up and take the citadel by surprise.

Ni hadithi nzuri ajabu. Pia karibu hakika si ya kweli. Mtafiti mmoja aliuchunguza mtanziko huu kwa makini zaidi ya miaka mia moja iliyopita na akaonyesha matatizo mawili. Kwanza, hakuna mtu yeyote anayeweza kuchonga karibu vidato mia mbili katika mwamba mgumu wa chokaa kwa usiku mmoja. Pili, kulikuwa na minara ya walinzi kando ya sehemu hii ya ukuta, na watu wanaogonga mwamba usiku kucha hawawezi kupita bila kugunduliwa.

It is a wonderful story. It is also almost certainly not true. A researcher looked at the problem carefully more than a hundred years ago and pointed out two difficulties. First, nearly two hundred steps cannot be cut into solid limestone in one night by anybody. Second, there were guard towers along this stretch of wall, and men hammering at rock all night are not easy to miss.

Polly anaketi kwenye kidato kilicho takriban theluthi moja ya njia kuelekea baharini. Chini yake ndege mkubwa wa baharini anakuja akiteleza kando ya genge, chini sana hivi kwamba ncha ya bawa lake karibu inagusa maji, na hapigi bawa hata mara moja wakati wote anapopita. Jibu la kweli la nani alichonga vidato hivi, na kwa nini, liko mahali fulani chini zaidi.

Polly sits down on a step about a third of the way toward the sea. Below her a large seabird comes gliding along the cliff, so low that its wingtip nearly touches the water, and it does not flap once the whole way past. The real answer to who cut these steps, and why, is somewhere further down.