俯在头顶的悬崖

等她下到足够深的地方，波莉发现天空起了奇怪的变化：变少了。她抬头一看，悬崖正悬在她头顶上方，上面比下面宽，崖顶的小城已经退到她身后和上方，完全看不见了。

By the time she has gone far enough down, Polly notices that something strange has happened to the sky. There is less of it. She looks up and finds the cliff hanging out over her head, wider up there than it is down here, so that the town at the top is somewhere behind and above and completely out of sight.

这是大海经年累月的杰作。海浪不停地冲刷悬崖的底部，把下面的岩石一点点掏走，而上方的岩石脚下无所依托，只能等待。沿着这段海岸，大海在崖脚掏出了一个又一个洞穴，黑黢黢的大口吞进涌浪，再轰的一声吐出来，那震动连她坐着的石阶都能传过来。

This is what the sea has been doing for a very long time. Waves work at the bottom of a cliff and take the rock away from underneath, and the rock above, having nothing left to stand on, waits. Along this coast the sea has cut whole caves back into the base of the cliffs, wide dark mouths that swallow the swell and give it back with a boom she can feel through the step she is sitting on.

在她下方的岩架上，站着一些墨绿色的鸟，张开翅膀，在风里晾干。它们是欧鸬鹚，在这片岩石上筑巢，数量举足轻重：整个地中海繁殖的欧鸬鹚，将近一半都在这段海岸和远处的小岛周围安家。

On the ledges below her there are dark green birds standing with their wings held open, drying them in the wind. They are shags, and they nest along these rocks in numbers that matter. Close to half of all the shags breeding in the whole Mediterranean Sea nest around this stretch of coast and the little islands beyond it.

其中一只毫无预兆地从岩架上落下，收拢身子，干净利落地入水，几乎没溅起水花。波莉等着。它在水下待了很久。再浮上来时，它已在出人意料的远处，嘴里还叼着一条鱼。

One of them drops off its ledge without warning, folds, and goes into the water so cleanly that it barely makes a splash. Polly waits. It is gone a long time. When it surfaces it is a surprising distance away, and it has a fish.