世紀文學經典:《百年孤獨》第9章Part 1

COLONEL GERINELDO MáRQUEZ was the first to perceive the emptiness of the war. In his position as civil and military leader of Macondo he would have telegraphic conversations twice a week with Colonel Aure-liano Buendía. At first those exchanges would determine the course of a flesh-and-blood war, the perfectly defined outlines of which told them at any moment the exact spot -where it was and the prediction of its future direction. Although he never let himself be pulled into the area of confidences, not even by his closest friends, Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía still had at that time the familiar tone that made it possible to identify him at the other end of the wire. Many times he would prolong the talk beyond the expected limit and let them drift into comments of a domestic nature. Little by little, however, and as the war became more intense and widespread, his image was fading away into a universe of unreality. The characteristics of his speech were more and more uncertain, and they cam together and combined to form words that were gradually losing all meaning. Colonel Gerineldo Márquez limited himself then to just listening, burdened by the impression that he was in telegraphic contact with a stranger from another world.
"I understand, Aureli-ano," he would conclude on the key. "Long live the Liberal party!"
He finally lost all contact with the war. What in other times had been a real activity, an irresistible passion of his youth, became a remote point of reference for him: an emptiness. His only refuge was Amaranta's sewing room. He would visit her every afternoon. He liked to watch her hands as she curled frothy petticoat cloth in the machine that was kept in motion by Remedios the Beauty. They spent many hours without speaking, content with their reciprocal company, but while Amaranta was inwardly pleased in keeping the fire of his devotion alive, he was unaware of the secret designs of that indecipherable heart. When the news of his return reached her, Amaranta had been smothered by anxiety. But when she saw him enter the house in the middle of Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía's noisy escort and she saw how he had been mistreated by the rigors of exile, made old by age and oblivion, dirty with sweat and dust, smelling like a herd, ugly, with his left arm in a sling, she felt faint with disillusionment. "My God," she thought. "This wasn't the person I was waiting for." On the following day, however, he came back to the house shaved and clean, with his mustache perfumed with lavender water and without the bloody sling. He brought her a prayerbook bound in mother-of-pearl.
"How strange men are," she said, because she could not think of anything else to say. "They spend their lives fighting against priests and then give prayerbooks as gifts."
From that time on, even during the most critical days of the war, he visited her every afternoon. Many times, when Remedios the Beauty was not present, it was he who turned the wheel on the sewing machine. Amaranta felt upset by the perseverance, the loyalty, the submissiveness of that man who was invested with so much authority and who nevertheless took off his sidearm in the living room so that he could go into the sewing room without weapons, But for four years he kept repeating his love and she would always find a way to reject him without hurting him, for even though she had not succeeded in loving him she could no longer live without him. Remedios the Beauty, who seemed indifferent to everything and who was thought to be mentally retarded, was not insensitive to so much devotion and she intervened in Colonel Gerineldo Márquez's favor. Amaranta suddenly discovered that the girl she had raised, who was just entering adolescence, was already the most beautiful creature that had even been seen in Macondo. She felt reborn in her heart the rancor that she had felt in other days for Rebeca, and begging God not to impel her into the extreme state of wishing her dead, she banished her from the sewing room. It was around that time that Colonel Gerineldo Márquez began to feel the boredom of the war. He summoned his reserves of persuasion, his broad and repressed tenderness, ready to give up for Amaranta a glory that had cost him the sacrifice of his best years. But he could not succeed in convincing her. One August afternoon, overcome by the unbearable weight of her own obstinacy, Amaranta locked herself in her bedroom to weep over her solitude unto death after giving her final answer to her tenacious suitor:"Let's forget about each other forever," she told him. "We're too old for this sort of thing now."
Colonel Gerineldo Márquez had a telegraphic call from Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía that afternoon. It was a routine conversation which was not going to bring about any break in the stagnant war. At the end, Colonel Gerineldo Márquez looked at the desolate streets, the crystal water on the almond trees, and he found himself lost in solitude.
"Aureli-ano," he said sadly on the key, "it's raining in Macondo."

格林列爾多。馬克斯上校第一個感到戰爭的空虛。作爲馬孔多的軍政長官，他跟奧雷連諾上校在電話上每週聯繫兩次。起初，他們在交談中還能斷定戰爭的進展情況，根據戰爭的輪廓，能夠明瞭戰爭處在什麼階段，預先見到戰爭會往什麼方向發展。儘管奧雷連諾上校在最親密的朋友面前也不吐露胸懷，然而當時他的口吻還是親切隨和的，在線路另一頭馬上就能聽出是他。他經常毫無必要地延長談話，扯一些家庭瑣享。但是，由於戰爭日益激烈和擴大，他的形象就越來越暗淡和虛幻了。每一次，他說起話來總是越來越含糊，他那斷斷續續的字眼兒連接在一起幾乎沒有任何意義。面對這樣的情況，格林列爾多·馬克斯上校只能難受地傾聽，覺得自己是在電話上跟另一個世界的陌生人說話。
“全明白啦，奧雷連諾，”他按了按電鍵，結束談話。“自由黨萬歲！”
最後，格林列爾多·馬克斯上校完全脫離了戰爭。從前，戰爭是他青年時代理想的行動和難以遏制的嗜好，現在卻變成了一種遙遠的、陌生的東西——空虛。他逃避現實的唯一處所是阿瑪蘭塔的縫紉室。他每天下午都去那兒。悄姑娘雷麥黛絲轉動縫紉機把手的時候，他喜歡欣賞阿瑪蘭塔如何給雪白的襯裙布打褶子。女主人和客人滿足於彼此作伴，默不吭聲地度過許多個小時，阿瑪蘭塔心裏高興的是他那忠貞的火焰沒有熄滅。但他卻仍不明白她那難以理解的心究竟有什麼祕密打算。知道格林列爾多 .馬克斯上校回到馬孔多之後，阿瑪蘭塔幾乎激動死了。然而，當他左手吊着挎帶走進來的時候（他只是奧雷連諾上校許多鬧嘈嘈的隨從人員中間的一個），阿瑪蘭塔看見離鄉背井的艱苦生活把他折磨得多麼厲害，荏苒的光陰使他變得多麼蒼老，看見他骯裏骯髒、滿臉是汗、渾身塵土、發出馬廄氣味，看見他樣子醜陋，她失望得差點兒昏厥過去。“我的上帝，”她想。“這可不是我等候的那個人呀！”然而，他第二天來的時候，颳了臉，渾身整潔，沒有血跡斑斑的繃帶，鬍子裏還發出花露水的味兒。他送給阿瑪蘭塔一本用珠母釘裝釘起來的祈禱書。
“你真是個怪人，”她說，因爲她想不出別的話來。“一輩子反對教士，卻拿祈禱書送人。”
從這時起，即使在戰爭的危急關頭，他每天下午都來看她。有許多次，俏姑娘雷麥黛絲不在的時候，轉動縫紉機把手的就是他。他的堅貞不渝和恭順態度使她受到感動，因爲這個擁有大權的人竟在她的面前俯首帖耳，甚至還把自己的軍刀和手槍留在客廳裏，空手走進她的房間。然而，在這四年中，每當格林列爾多·馬克斯上校向她表白愛情時，她總是想法拒絕他，儘管她也沒有傷他的面子，因爲，她雖還沒愛上他，但她沒有他已經過不了日子。俏姑娘雷麥黛絲對格林列爾多·馬克斯的堅貞頗爲感動，突然爲他辯護，而以前她對周圍的一切完全是無動丁衷的——許多人甚至認爲她腦了遲鈍。阿瑪蘭塔忽然發現，她養大的姑娘剛剛進入青春期，卻已成了馬孔多從未見過的美女。阿瑪蘭塔覺得自己心裏產生了從前對雷貝卡的那種怨恨。她希望這種怨恨不要讓她走向極端，而把俏姑娘，雷麥黛絲弄死。接着，她就把這姑娘趕出了自己的房間。正好這個時候，格林列爾多·馬克斯上校開始厭惡戰爭。他準備爲阿瑪蘭塔犧牲自己的榮譽（這種榮譽使他耗去了一生中最好的年華），說盡了好話，表露了長期壓抑的無限溫情。但他未能說服阿瑪蘭塔。八月裏的一天下午，阿瑪蘭塔由於自己的頑固而感到十分痛苦，把自己關在臥室裏，打算至死都孤身過活了，因爲她剛纔給堅定的術婚者作了最後的回答。“咱們彼此永遠忘記吧，”她說，“現在幹這種事兒，咱們都太老啦。”
就在這天下午，奧雷連諾上校叫他去聽電話。這是一次通常的交談，對於停滯不前的戰爭毫無一點作用。一切都已說完以後，格林列爾多·馬克斯上校朝荒涼的街道掃了一眼，看見杏樹枝上懸着的水珠，他就感到自己孤獨得要死。
“奧雷連諾，”他在電話上悲切地說，“馬孔多正在下雨呵。”