評論
打印
Take, for example, the birth date of Teta Im Khalil, the oldest woman in Magdaluna and all the surrounding villages. When I asked Grandma, "How old is Teta Im Khalil?"
我們拿臺塔·伊姆·卡利爾的出生日期來舉例說明吧。她是馬格達路納以及周圍村莊中最年長的婦女，我問祖母：“臺塔·伊姆·卡利爾多大年紀了？”
Grandma had to think for a moment; then she said, "I've been told that Teta was born shortly after the big snow that caused the roof on the mayor's house to cave in."
祖母得要想一會兒，然后才說：“有人說臺塔是在一場大雪后不久出生的，那場大雪把市長家的屋頂都壓塌了。”
"And when was that?" I asked.
“那又是什么時候呢？”我問。
"Oh, about the time we had the big earthquake that cracked the wall in the east room."
“哦，大約是在那場大地贌發生的時候，東屋的墻都震出裂縫了。”
Well, that was enough for me. You couldn't be more accurate than that, now, could you?
好了，對于我來說，這已經足夠了，這就說得夠準了，是吧？
And that's the way it was in our little village for as far back as anybody could remember. One of the most unusual of the dates was when a whirlwind struck during which fish and oranges fell from the sky. Incredible as it may sound, the story of the fish and oranges was true, because men who would not lie even to save their own souls told and retold that story until it was incorporated into Magdaluna's calendar.
打人們記事以來我們小村莊就是使用這種方法來回憶過去曾發生的事情的。一個不同尋常的日子就是有一次龍卷風襲擊時，魚和柑橘從天而降。盡管這聽起來讓人難以置信，但是天上掉魚和柑橘的故事的確是真的，因為人們一遍又一遍地講這個故事，他們即便是為了挽救自己的靈魂也不會撒謊。就這樣，這件事被記入了馬格達路納的日歷。
