Schodisko a príbeh o ňom

Zhora vyzerali schody zle. Z prvého schodu nadol vyzerajú ešte horšie. Klesajú zhruba pod takým uhlom ako rebrík opretý o stenu a vlastne to ani nie je schodisko. Je to ryha vytesaná do skaly, miestami zhruba taká široká ako dvere, inde užšia, a na dne tej štrbiny presvitá bledozelené more. Polly zoskočí o niekoľko schodov nižšie a zistí, že sú nerovné. Každý má trochu inú výšku.

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 tomto mieste koluje príbeh a rozpráva ho každý. V roku tisícštyristodvadsať obliehalo mesto aragónske vojsko a jeho vojaci vraj za jedinú noc tajne vytesali do útesu celé toto schodisko, aby mohli vyliezť hore a dobyť citadelu prekvapením.

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.

Je to nádherný príbeh. A takmer určite nie je pravdivý. Istý bádateľ sa na celú vec pred viac ako sto rokmi pozorne pozrel a upozornil na dve ťažkosti. Po prvé, takmer dvesto schodov do pevného vápenca za jednu noc nevytesá nikto. Po druhé, pozdĺž tohto úseku hradieb stáli strážne veže a mužov, ktorí celú noc búchajú do skaly, len tak neprehliadnete.

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 si sadne na schod asi v tretine cesty k moru. Pod ňou kĺže popri útese veľký morský vták, tak nízko, že sa končekom krídla takmer dotkne vody, a celou cestou okolo ani raz nezamáva. Skutočná odpoveď na to, kto tie schody vytesal a prečo, leží niekde nižšie.

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.