风暴下的村庄

波莉记下了一个地名。“你能告诉我怎么去那里吗？”早饭时她问母羊。沿着海岸公路往西走，母羊说。斯凯尔湾是一道淡色沙滩的长弧。它后面是一层绿色的台地，村庄就在那里，半陷进地里。

Polly had one place written down. "Can you tell me how to get there?" she asked the ewe at breakfast. Follow the coast road west, the ewe said. The Bay of Skaill is a long curve of pale sand. Behind it is a green shelf, and the village sits there, half sunk into the ground.

一只蛎鹬正在遗址上找食。波莉问：“我想了解一下这处古迹的历史。”五千年前有人住在这里，他说。他们在这片海岸耕作的时候，巨石阵和大金字塔都还没有建起来。后来沙子把村庄埋了四千年，直到一八五零年的一场风暴把沙子带走。

An oystercatcher was working the site. Polly asked, "I would like to know the history of this particular monument." People lived here five thousand years ago, he said. They farmed this coast before Stonehenge and before the Great Pyramid. Then sand covered the village for four thousand years, until a storm in eighteen fifty took it away.

风把这番话吹走了一半。“可以请你再说一遍吗？”波莉问。每一间屋子的家具都一样，位置也一样。正中是炉膛。两侧是床。对面墙前是一个石头碗柜。是石头做的，因为这里没有木头。

The wind took half of that. "Could you please repeat that for me?" Polly asked. Every house has the same furniture in the same places. A hearth in the middle. Beds at each side. A stone dresser against the far wall. It is stone because there was no wood.

“你能告诉我博物馆明天开门吗？”波莉问。她知道自己还会再来。她站在一间屋子的边上，望着里面那个房间，它的布置和任何人布置房间的方式一样。

"Could you tell me if the museum is open tomorrow?" Polly asked. She knew she would come back. She stood at the edge of one house, looking into a room laid out the way anyone lays out a room.