世紀文學經典:《百年孤獨》第1章Part 8

"We have still not had a death," he said. "A person does not belong to a place until there is someone dead under the ground."
úrsula replied with a soft firmness:
"If I have to die for the rest of you to stay here, I will die."
José Arcadio Buendía had not thought that his wife's will was so firm. He tried to seduce her with the charm of his fantasy, with the promise of a prodigious world where all one had to do was sprinkle some magic liquid on the ground and the plants would bear fruit whenever a man wished, and where all manner of instruments against pain were sold at bargain prices. But úrsula was insensible to his clairvoyance.
"Instead of going around thinking about your crazy inventions, you should be worrying about your sons," she replied. "Look at the state they're in, running wild just like donkeys."
José Arcadio Buendía took his wife's words literally. He looked out the window and saw the barefoot children in the sunny garden and he had the impression that only at that instant had they begun to exist, conceived by úrsula's spell, Something occurred inside of him then, something mysterious and definitive that uprooted him from his own time and carried him adrift through an unexplored region of his memory. While úrsula continued sweeping the house, which was safe now from being abandoned for the rest of her life, he stood there with an absorbed look, contemplating the children until his eyes became moist and he dried them with the back of his hand, exhaling a deep sigh of resignation.
"All right," he said. "Tell them to come help me take the things out of the boxes."

“可是，咱們還沒有一個人死在這兒，”霍·阿·布恩蒂亞反駁說，“一個人如果沒有親屬埋在這兒，他就不足這個地方的人。”
烏蘇娜溫和而堅決他說：
“爲了咱們留在這兒，如果要我死，我就死。”
霍·阿·布恩蒂亞並不相信妻子那麼堅定，他試圖字自己的幻想迷住她，答應帶她去看一個美妙的世界；那兒，只要在地裏噴上神奇的藥水，植物就會按照人的願望長出果實；那兒，可以賤價買到各種治病的藥物。可是他的幻想並沒有打動她。
“不要成天想入非非，最好關心關心孩子吧，”她回答。“你瞧，他們象小狗兒似的被扔在一邊，沒有人管。”
霍·阿·布恩蒂亞一字一句體會妻子的話，他望了望窗外，看見兩個赤足的孩子正在烈日炎炎的萊園裏；他覺得，他們僅在這一瞬間纔開始存在，彷彿是烏蘇娜的咒語呼喚出來的。這時，一種神祕而重要的東西在他心中兀然出現，使他完全脫離了現實，浮游在住事的回憶裏。當鳥蘇娜打掃屋子、決心一輩子也不離開這兒時，霍·阿·布恩蒂亞繼續全神貫注地望着兩個孩子，終於望得兩眼溼潤，他就用手背擦了擦眼睛，無可奈何地發出一聲深沉的嘆息。
“好啦，”他說，“叫他們來幫我搬出箱子裏的東西吧。”