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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?"
我们拿台塔·伊姆·卡利尔的出生日期来举例说明吧。她是马格达路纳以及周围村庄中最年长的妇女，我问祖母：“台塔·伊姆·卡利尔多大年纪了？”
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."
祖母得要想一会儿，然后才说：“有人说台塔是在一场大雪后不久出生的，那场大雪把市长家的屋顶都压塌了。”
"And when was that?" I asked.
“那又是什么时候呢？”我问。
"Oh, about the time we had the big earthquake that cracked the wall in the east room."
“哦，大约是在那场大地贌发生的时候，东屋的墙都震出裂缝了。”
Well, that was enough for me. You couldn't be more accurate than that, now, could you?
好了，对于我来说，这已经足够了，这就说得够准了，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.
打人们记事以来我们小村庄就是使用这种方法来回忆过去曾发生的事情的。一个不同寻常的日子就是有一次龙卷风袭击时，鱼和柑橘从天而降。尽管这听起来让人难以置信，但是天上掉鱼和柑橘的故事的确是真的，因为人们一遍又一遍地讲这个故事，他们即便是为了挽救自己的灵魂也不会撒谎。就这样，这件事被记入了马格达路纳的日历。
