/* Translators: Only date format, time will be bogus */
   if (g_date_strftime (buf, sizeof (buf), _("%x"), date) == 0) {
       int m = g_date_get_month (date);
       int d = g_date_get_day (date);
       /* If we fail just use the US format */
       utf8 = g_strdup_printf ("%s %d", _(month[(int) m-1]), d);
   } else
       utf8 = locale_to_utf8 (buf);

If g_date_strftime fails, it fails. Please don't ask us to translate month names again and again. Instead display a comprehensive error message.