Mwamba Ulioondoka

Chini zaidi bado, Polly anashuka kiasi cha kukutana na jirani. Pale majini, karibu kiasi kwamba anahisi angeweza kuteleza hewani hadi kwake, umesimama mnara mmoja wa mwamba hafifu, bahari ikivunjika nyeupe kuzunguka mguu wake. Unaitwa Chembe ya Mchanga, jina la utani, kwa sababu ukubwa wake unakaribia ule wa kanisa dogo.

Further down still, Polly comes down far enough to meet a neighbor. Standing out in the water, close enough that she feels she could glide to it, is a single tower of pale rock with the sea breaking white around its foot. It is called the Grain of Sand, which is a joke, because it is roughly the size of a small church.

Haukuwa pale siku zote. Takriban miaka mia nane iliyopita ulikuwa sehemu ya genge hili, umeungana nalo, wa kawaida tu. Kisha mawimbi yakamaliza kazi yaliyokuwa yakiifanya chini yake, mwamba uliounganisha ukaondoka, na mnara ukabaki umesimama peke yake baharini. Polly anautazama kwa muda. Ni mwembamba zaidi chini kuliko juu. Bahari bado inafanya kazi.

It has not always been out there. About eight hundred years ago it was part of this cliff, joined on, ordinary. Then the waves finished the job they had been working at underneath it, and the connecting rock went, and the tower was left standing alone in the sea. Polly looks at it for a while. It is thinner at the bottom than at the top. The sea is still working.

Shakwe anapita usawa wa macho yake, na huyu anastahili kutazamwa. Si mmoja wa wale wenye kelele wanaofuata mashua na kuiba chipsi kwenye ukuta wa bandari. Huyu ni shakwe wa Audouin, na hali mabaki hata kidogo. Anajipatia riziki yake baharini mbali, akiwinda samaki, jambo ambalo kwa shakwe karibu ni suala la kanuni.

A gull comes past at eye level, and this one is worth watching. It is not one of the loud ones that follow boats and steal chips from the harbor wall. This is an Audouin's gull, and it does not scavenge at all. It makes its living out at sea, hunting fish, which for a gull is almost a matter of principle.

Anaondoka juu ya mlangobahari mwanga ukiwa nyuma yake hadi Polly anampoteza. Anatazama tena mwamba uliosimama, na pengo kati yake na genge, na kufikiri jinsi pengo hilo lilivyokuwa zamani jiwe gumu ambalo mtu angeweza kulivuka kwa miguu.

It goes out over the strait with the light behind it until Polly loses it. She looks back at the standing rock, and at the gap between it and the cliff, and thinks about how that gap was once solid stone that somebody could have walked across.