The Circle and the Morning Boat

The Ring of Brodgar sits on a narrow neck of land between two lochs, which is the only reason it feels high. The stones stand in a circle about one hundred and four metres across, cut off from the moor by a ditch hacked into solid rock. It was raised between four and four and a half thousand years ago, and it is part of a world heritage site.

Brodgarski krog stoji na ozkem pasu zemlje med dvema jezeroma, in samo zato se zdi visok. Kamni stojijo v krogu s premerom približno sto štirih metrov, od barja pa jih loči jarek, vsekan v živo skalo. Postavili so ga pred štiri tisoč do štiri tisoč petsto leti in je del območja svetovne dediščine.

There were around sixty stones once. Thirty-six are standing now, and the gaps are as much of the shape as the stones are. Polly walked the ring the long way, on the outside, with heather to her knees and the light going flat and wide across the water on both sides. Nothing about it is arranged for a visitor. It was arranged for something else, and whatever that was is not recorded anywhere.

Nekoč je bilo kamnov okoli šestdeset. Danes jih stoji šestintrideset, vrzeli pa so prav toliko del oblike kot kamni. Polly je krog obhodila po daljši poti, po zunanji strani, z resjem do kolen in s svetlobo, ki se je na obeh straneh ploščato razlivala čez vodo. Nič pri njem ni urejeno za obiskovalca. Urejeno je bilo za nekaj drugega, in kar koli je to bilo, ni nikjer zapisano.

Then the ordinary business of leaving. Back at the harbour office there was a shag behind a counter and a printed sheet on the wall. "What time does the ferry leave?" Polly asked. "How much does this cost?" She looked at the sheet with him while he found the line. "I would like to buy a ticket, please."

Potem pa običajni opravki pred odhodom. V pristaniški pisarni je za pultom sedel vranjek, na steni pa je visel natisnjen list."Kdaj odpelje trajekt?"je vprašala Polly."Koliko to stane?"Skupaj z njim je gledala v list, medtem ko je iskal vrstico."Rada bi kupila vozovnico, prosim."

"How long does the crossing take?" she asked last, and put the ticket away. In the morning the boat pulled out past the same low headland it had come in by, and the islands went down behind it in the order she had learned them: a town on one street, a bay with a village in it, a chapel made of huts, a rock full of seals, and inland, out of sight from the water, a circle with most of its stones still up.

"Koliko časa traja vožnja?"je vprašala nazadnje in pospravila vozovnico. Zjutraj je ladja odplula mimo istega nizkega rtiča, ob katerem je priplula, otoki pa so tonili za njo v vrstnem redu, v kakršnem se jih je naučila: mesto na eni sami ulici, zaliv z vasjo v njem, kapela iz barak, skala, polna tjulnjev, in v notranjosti, z vode nevidno, krog, ki mu večina kamnov še stoji.