Stopnišče in stara zgodba

Od blizu so stopnice videti še slabše kot prej. Spuščajo se zelo strmo, skoraj kot lestev. Pravzaprav to ni pravo stopnišče. To je ozka črta, vsekana v skalo, in globoko spodaj Polly vidi zeleno morje. Skoči po prvih nekaj stopnicah navzdol. Vsaka stopnica je malo višja ali nižja od prejšnje.

Up close the steps look worse than before. They go down very steeply, almost like a ladder. It is not really a staircase. It is a narrow line cut into the rock, and far below Polly can see the green sea. She hops down the first few. Every step is a little higher or lower than the last one.

O tem kraju obstaja stara zgodba in pripoveduje jo vsak. Leta tisoč štiristo dvajset je prišla vojska, da bi napadla mesto. Ljudje pravijo, da so vojaki vse to stopnišče v eni noči na skrivaj vsekali v pečino. Tako so lahko splezali gor in presenetili mesto.

There is an old story about this place, and everybody tells it. In the year fourteen twenty, an army came to attack the town. People say the soldiers cut this whole staircase into the cliff in one night, in secret, so they could climb up and surprise the town above.

Dobra zgodba je. Ampak verjetno ni resnična. Neki raziskovalec jo je preučil pred sto leti. Rekel je dve stvari. Dvesto stopnic ne moreš v eni noči vsekati v trdo skalo. In tu so stali stražni stolpi, zato nihče ni mogel vso noč delati, ne da bi ga videli.

It is a good story. But it is probably not true. A researcher studied it a hundred years ago. He said two things. You cannot cut two hundred steps into hard rock in one night. And there were guard towers here, so nobody could work all night without being seen.

Polly sede na stopnico. Pod njo prileti velika morska ptica, tako nizko, da se s perutjo skoraj dotakne morja. Sploh ne maha s perutmi. Pravi odgovor je nekje globlje spodaj.

Polly sits down on a step. Below her a big seabird flies past, so low that its wing almost touches the sea. It does not move its wings at all. The real answer is somewhere further down.