Genge Linaloinama Juu Yako

Kufikia wakati ameshuka chini vya kutosha, Polly anagundua kwamba jambo la ajabu limeitokea anga. Imepungua. Anatazama juu na kuona genge likining'inia juu ya kichwa chake, pana zaidi huko juu kuliko lilivyo huku chini, hivi kwamba mji ulio kileleni sasa uko mahali fulani nyuma na juu yake, umefichika kabisa machoni.

By the time she has gone far enough down, Polly notices that something strange has happened to the sky. There is less of it. She looks up and finds the cliff hanging out over her head, wider up there than it is down here, so that the town at the top is somewhere behind and above and completely out of sight.

Hivi ndivyo bahari imekuwa ikifanya kwa muda mrefu sana. Mawimbi hufanya kazi chini ya genge na kuuondoa mwamba kutoka chini, na mwamba ulio juu, ukiwa hauna tena kitu cha kusimamia, unangoja. Kando ya pwani hii bahari imechonga mapango mazima ndani ya miguu ya magenge, midomo mipana ya giza inayomeza mawimbi na kuyarudisha kwa mshindo ambao Polly anauhisi kupitia kidato alichokalia.

This is what the sea has been doing for a very long time. Waves work at the bottom of a cliff and take the rock away from underneath, and the rock above, having nothing left to stand on, waits. Along this coast the sea has cut whole caves back into the base of the cliffs, wide dark mouths that swallow the swell and give it back with a boom she can feel through the step she is sitting on.

Kwenye kingo za miamba chini yake wamesimama ndege wa rangi ya kijani iliyokolea, mabawa yao yakiwa wazi, wakiyakausha upepoeni. Hawa ni ndege aina ya mnandi, na wanajenga viota kwenye miamba hii kwa idadi yenye uzito. Karibu nusu ya mnandi wote wanaozaliana katika Bahari ya Mediterania nzima hujenga viota kuzunguka sehemu hii ya pwani na visiwa vidogo vilivyo mbele yake.

On the ledges below her there are dark green birds standing with their wings held open, drying them in the wind. They are shags, and they nest along these rocks in numbers that matter. Close to half of all the shags breeding in the whole Mediterranean Sea nest around this stretch of coast and the little islands beyond it.

Mmoja wao anajitupa kutoka ukingo wake bila onyo, anakunja mabawa, na kuingia majini kwa ulaini hivi kwamba karibu harushi maji hata kidogo. Polly anangoja. Anakaa chini kwa muda mrefu. Anapoibuka yuko mbali kwa namna ya kushangaza, na ana samaki.

One of them drops off its ledge without warning, folds, and goes into the water so cleanly that it barely makes a splash. Polly waits. It is gone a long time. When it surfaces it is a surprising distance away, and it has a fish.