Stube i priča o njima

Odozgo su stube izgledale loše. S prve stube nadolje izgledaju još gore. Spuštaju se otprilike pod istim kutom kao ljestve prislonjene uza zid, i zapravo uopće nisu stubište. To je žlijeb usječen u stijenu, mjestimice širok otprilike kao vrata, a drugdje uži, dok se na dnu procjepa blijedozeleno nazire more. Polly skakuće niz prvih nekoliko i otkrije da su neravne. Svaka je stuba malo drukčije visine.

From the top the steps looked bad. From the first one down, they look worse. They fall away at about the same angle as a ladder leaned against a wall, and they are not really a staircase at all. They are a groove cut into the rock, roughly as wide as a doorway in places and narrower in others, with the sea showing pale green at the bottom of the gap. Polly hops down the first few and finds them uneven. Every step is a slightly different height.

O ovom mjestu postoji priča i svi je pričaju. Godine tisuću četiristo dvadesete aragonska je vojska opsjela grad, a njezini su vojnici navodno u jednoj jedinoj noći, potajno, isklesali cijelo ovo stubište u liticu kako bi se popeli gore i na prepad zauzeli citadelu.

There is a story about this place, and everyone tells it. In the year fourteen twenty, an army from Aragon laid siege to the town, and its soldiers are said to have carved this entire staircase into the cliff in one single night, in secret, in order to climb up and take the citadel by surprise.

Divna je to priča. A gotovo sigurno nije istinita. Jedan je istraživač prije više od sto godina pažljivo proučio problem i ukazao na dvije poteškoće. Prvo, gotovo dvjesto stuba nitko ne može u jednoj noći usjeći u čvrsti vapnenac. Drugo, duž ovog dijela zidina stajale su stražarske kule, a ljude koji cijelu noć udaraju čekićem po stijeni teško je ne čuti.

It is a wonderful story. It is also almost certainly not true. A researcher looked at the problem carefully more than a hundred years ago and pointed out two difficulties. First, nearly two hundred steps cannot be cut into solid limestone in one night by anybody. Second, there were guard towers along this stretch of wall, and men hammering at rock all night are not easy to miss.

Polly sjedne na stubu otprilike na trećini puta do mora. Ispod nje uz liticu klizi velika morska ptica, tako nisko da vrhom krila gotovo dotiče vodu, i cijelim putem pokraj nje ne zamahne ni jednom. Pravi odgovor na pitanje tko je usjekao ove stube, i zašto, nalazi se negdje niže.

Polly sits down on a step about a third of the way toward the sea. Below her a large seabird comes gliding along the cliff, so low that its wingtip nearly touches the water, and it does not flap once the whole way past. The real answer to who cut these steps, and why, is somewhere further down.