Dedina pod búrkou

Polly mala zapísané jedno miesto. "Viete mi povedať, ako sa tam dostanem?" spýtala sa ovce pri raňajkách. Choďte po pobrežnej ceste na západ, povedala ovca. Záliv Skaill je dlhý oblúk bledého piesku. Za ním je zelená terasa a na nej stojí tá dedina, napoly zapadnutá do zeme.

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.

Na lokalite pracoval lastúrničiar. Polly sa spýtala: "Chcela by som sa dozvedieť históriu tejto konkrétnej pamiatky." Ľudia tu žili pred päťtisíc rokmi, povedal. Toto pobrežie obrábali skôr, než vzniklo Stonehenge, a skôr, než postavili Veľkú pyramídu. Potom dedinu na štyritisíc rokov zasypal piesok, kým ho v roku tisícosemstopäťdesiat neodniesla búrka.

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.

Polovicu z toho odniesol vietor. "Mohli by ste mi to, prosím, zopakovať?" spýtala sa Polly. V každom dome je to isté zariadenie na tých istých miestach. Ohnisko uprostred. Lôžka po oboch stranách. Kamenný príborník pri protiľahlej stene. Je kamenný preto, že tu nebolo drevo.

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.

"Mohli by ste mi povedať, či je múzeum zajtra otvorené?" spýtala sa Polly. Vedela, že sa sem vráti. Stála na okraji jedného domu a pozerala do miestnosti zariadenej tak, ako si miestnosť zariaďuje ktokoľvek.

"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.