Kupanda Tena Juu

Chini kabisa hakuna la kufanya ila kugeuka na kupanda tena juu. Kupanda ni polepole kuliko kushuka na kunamchukulia nguvu zaidi kuliko alivyotarajia, naye anasimama mara mbili, na mara zote mbili anajifanya kwamba anasimama ili kutazama mandhari.

At the bottom there is nothing to do but turn around and climb back up. Going up is slower than coming down and takes rather more of her than she expected, and she stops twice, and pretends both times that she is stopping to look at the view.

Kwenye mojawapo ya vidato vya chini vilivyolowa kuna konokono wa mwambani, ameketi kwenye kibonyeo kisicho kirefu katika jiwe. Kibonyeo hicho kina umbo halisi la gamba lake, kwa sababu amekuwa akirudi mahali hapo hapo kwa miaka mingi na kujisagia kiti pale. Hutoka usiku kula, huzurura vidato vichache gizani, na kila asubuhi hupata njia ya kurudi nyumbani kwenye shimo linalomtosha yeye na si mwingine yeyote.

On one of the wet lower steps there is a limpet, sitting in a shallow dip in the stone. The dip is the exact shape of its shell, because it has been coming back to that same spot for years and grinding itself a seat there. It goes out at night to eat, wanders a few steps in the dark, and every morning finds its way home to a hole that fits it and nothing else.

Kutoka juu, mwanga umezunguka kiasi cha kuonyesha visiwa vilivyo katika mlangobahari. Ni ulimwengu mwingine. Pale ambapo genge hili ni chokaa hafifu iliyojaa matundu na mapango, visiwa vile ni graniti ya rangi ya waridi, iliyorundikwa katika majabali makubwa laini kama kitu kilichoachwa nyuma na jitu, na mijusi huishi huko kwa idadi ambayo usingeiamini.

From the top, the light has come round enough to show the islands out in the strait. They are a different world. Where this cliff is pale limestone full of holes and caves, those islands are pink granite, piled up in huge smooth boulders like something left behind by a giant, and lizards live out there in numbers you would not believe.

Polly anaketi juu ya boma upepo ukipanda kutoka ukingoni, na anatazama chini mwanya ule mwambani kwa mara ya mwisho. Karibu vidato mia mbili, vilivyochongwa kwa mkono, vikishuka ndani ya genge hadi kikombe cha maji baridi. Anaanza safari kuelekea kaskazini kando ya pwani jua likiwa upande wake wa kushoto.

Polly sits on the rampart with the wind coming up over the edge and looks down at the slot in the rock one more time. Nearly two hundred steps, hand cut, going down through a cliff to a cup of cold water. She sets off north along the coast with the sun on her left.