Atdtda34: Welcome home, 956

[Paul Nightingale]

In the previous section there are "raptors" that, for the reader, might
invoke air warfare (955); here there are "predators above" (956), but
"birdsong, some kind of Bulgarian thrush" (a translation of sorts, although
it isn't given explicitly to Reef) becomes "a message" for Ljubica,
"listen[ing] intently". In the previous section, the child leads her adult
carers to the Halkata (955); here, her response to the birdsong has a
similar function, leading them to the "old structure of some kind, destroyed
and rebuilt more than once over the centuries" (956). On 955 it is Reef who
responds to the child: "Sure ... let's go have a look." Here, the two men
discuss the approach; nowhere in the section is Yashmeen mentioned although
we might assume she is present as Cyprian "[leads] them up into a skein of
goat paths" (956).

Like the Halkata, this "structure" signifies tradition; however, "Cyprian
talking and smoking with a couple of boys" (955) is succeeded by an exchange
with the "figure in a monk's robe" (956). If Cyprian's ability to
communicate with locals has been to the fore, a reminder of his career, his
personal history, as with his "the last time I was out here" speech (955),
the monk's response "in University-accented English" undoes that history and
takes him back, not just to England but to the social circumstances he
inhabited there. At the end of the previous section he observes the
importance of paying attention to cultural norms or mores: "I had to adapt
quickly" (955). Hence the importance of the monk speaking in the kind of
English that will locate Cyprian in time and place.