Cesária Escobar tinha dezesseis anos quando aceitou casar com um homem que vira apenas uma vez na vida. Seus sete irmãos e irmãs estremeceram ao ver o casal descer do altar de braços dados, mas a mãe, já viúva, beijou-lhe a testa e desejou aos dois toda a sorte que o mundo pode dar. O homem, Apolinário Barandirán García, não fizera condição alguma à sua família, e aceitou a pouca fortuna, a beleza medíocre, o sangue miscigenado.

Cesária Escobar was sixteen when she walked down the aisle, arm in arm with a man she had only met once. Her seven brothers and sisters watched in dismay, but her widowed mother wished her well. The man, Apolinário Barandirán García, made no conditions to her family—he accepted her lack of fortune, her average looks, her mixed blood.

Op dat moment kwam er een gedachte in me op: Tabula Rasa. Als ik dit wil overleven dan moet ik haast maken. Als het mijn hersenen bereikt of mijn hart aantast, dan is het over. In mijn hoofd maakte ik een schema om elke drie uur of zo vaak als nodig mijn fluxer te gebruiken.

A thought surfaced in my mind: Tabula Rasa. If I want to survive this I’ll have to hurry. If it reaches my brain or my heart, it’s over. In my head I prepared a schedule to use the fluxer every three hours or as often as I needed it.

Don Andrés Batista no creía en fantasmas. Ni en predicciones, ni en maldiciones ni en brujas. Para él lo único real eran los hechos desnudos. Durante seis décadas había ejercido la magistratura con fiero criterio aferrado a la verdad, la justicia y la demostración mediante la prueba confiable. Consideraba por debajo de la inteligencia humana dar fe a supersticiones “baratas”, amén de ser un enemigo declarado de la mentira.

Mr. Andrés Batista did not believe in ghosts. Nor in premonitions, curses or witchcraft. He was interested only in bare facts. For six decades he had served as regional magistrate with fierce devotion to truth, justice and demonstration through tangible evidence. He considered it an insult to human intelligence to believe in tawdry superstitions. He was a self-declared enemy of lies.

Kerron sinulle tarinan, jota kukaan ei kertonut minulle. Kukaan ei ole kuullut sitä. Annan tarinalle sanat, koska se haluaa tulla kerrotuksi täällä meren ääressä, niin lähellä kaiken alkua.

I will tell you a story I heard from no one. No one has heard it. I will give it words because it wants to be told, here at the far end of the sea, so close to the beginning.

The old residents of Dhaka can still remember how once, long ago, all the crows vanished from the city.

那匹蓝色的马每次在我睡着的时候，就来到我的梦里，跟我宁静地说一声：“走吧。”于是我就跟着它，我们健步如飞——对于我衰败的身体而言，那种轻盈的感觉简直欣喜得让人恐惧。