世紀文學經典:《百年孤獨》第1章Part 7

The discovery of the galleon, an indication of the proximity of the sea, broke José Arcadio Buendía's drive. He considered it a trick of his whimsical fate to have searched for the sea without finding it, at the cost of countless sacrifices and suffering, and to have found it all of a sudden without looking for it, as if it lay across his path like an insurmountable object. Many years later Colonel Aureliano Buendía crossed the region again, when it was already a regular mail route, and the only part of the ship he found was its burned-out frame in the midst of a field of poppies. Only then, convinced that the story had not been some product of his father's imagination, did he wonder how the galleon had been able to get inland to that spot. But José Arcadio Buendía did not concern himself with that when he found the sea after another four days' journey from the galleon. His dreams ended as he faced that ashen, foamy, dirty sea, which had not merited the risks and sacrifices of the adventure.
"God damn it!" he shouted. "Macondo is surrounded by water on all sides."
The idea of a peninsular Macondo prevailed for a long time, inspired by the arbitrary map that José Arcadio Buendía sketched on his return from the expedition. He drew it in rage, evilly, exaggerating the difficulties of communication, as if to punish himself for the absolute lack of sense with which he had chosen the place. "We'll never get anywhere," he lamented to úrsula. "We're going to rot our lives away here without receiving the benefits of science." That certainty, mulled over for several months in the small room he used as his laboratory, brought him to the conception of the plan to move Maeondo to a better place. But that time úrsula had anticipated his feverish designs. With the secret and implacable labor of a small ant she predisposed the women of the village against the flightiness of their husbands, who were already preparing for the move. José Arcadio Buendía did not know at what moment or because of what adverse forces his plan had become enveloped in a web of pretexts, disappointments,and evasions until it turned into nothing but an illusion. úrsula watched him with innocent attention and even felt some pity for him on the morning when she found him in the back room muttering about his plans for moving as he placed his laboratory pieces in their original boxes. She let him finish. She let him nail up the boxes and put his initials on them with an inked brush, without reproaching him, but knowing now that he knew (because she had heard him say so in his soft monologues) that the men of the village would not back him up in his undertaking. Only when he began to take down the door of the room did úrsula dare ask him what he was doing, and he answered with a certain bitterness. "Since no one wants to leave, we'll leave all by ourselves." úrsula did not become upset.
"We will not leave," she said. "We will stay here, because we have had a son here."

帆船的發現證明大海就在近旁，破壞了霍·阿·布恩蒂亞的戰鬥精神。他認爲這是狡詐的命運在捉弄他：他千幸萬苦尋找大海的時候，沒有找到它；他不想找它的時候，現在卻發現了它——它象一個不可克服的障礙橫在他的路上。多年以後，奧雷連諾上校也來到這個地區的時候（那時這兒已經開闢了驛道），他在帆船失事的地方只能看見一片罌粟花中間燒糊的船骨。那時他者相信，這整個故事並不是他父親虛構的，於是向自己提出個問題：帆船怎會深入陸地這麼遠呢？可是，再經過四天的路程，在離帆船十二公里的地方，霍·阿·布恩蒂亞看見大海的時候，並沒有想到這類問題。在大海面前，他的一切幻想都破滅了；大海翻着泡沫，混濁不堪，灰茫茫一片，值不得他和夥伴們去冒險和犧牲。
“真他媽的！”霍·阿·布思蒂亞叫道。“馬孔多四面八方都給海水圍住啦！”
探險回來以後，霍·阿·布恩蒂亞繪了一幅地圖：由於這張主觀想出的地圖，人們長時期裏都以爲馬孔多是在一個半島上面，他是惱怒地畫出這張地圖的，故意誇大跟外界往來的困難，彷彿想懲罰自己輕率地選擇了這個建村的地點，“咱們再也去下了任何地方啦，”他向烏蘇娜叫苦，“咱們會在這兒活活地爛掉，享受不到科學的好處了。”在自己的小試驗室裏，他把這種想法反芻似的咀嚼了幾個月，決定把馬孔多遷到更合適的地方去，可是妻子立即警告他，破壞了他那荒唐的計劃。村裏的男人已經開始準備搬家，烏蘇娜卻象螞蟻一樣悄悄地活動，一鼓作氣唆使村中的婦女反對男人的輕舉妄動。霍·阿·布恩蒂亞說不清楚，不知什麼時候，由於什麼對立的力量，他的計劃遭到一大堆藉口和託詞的阻撓，終於變成沒有結果的幻想。有一夭早晨烏蘇娜發現，他一面低聲叨咕搬家的計劃，一面把白己的試驗用具裝進箱子，她只在旁邊裝傻地觀察他，甚至有點兒憐憫他。她讓他把事兒子完，在他釘上箱子，拿蘸了墨水的刷子在箱子上寫好自己的縮寫姓名時，她一句也沒責備他，儘管她已明白（憑他含糊的咕嚕），他知道村裏的男人並不支持他的想法。只當霍·阿·布恩蒂亞開始卸下房門時，烏蘇娜才大膽地向他要幹什麼，他有點難過地回答說：“既然誰也不想走，咱們就單獨走吧。”烏蘇娜沒有發慌。
“不，咱們不走，”他說。“咱們要留在這兒。因爲咱們在這兒生了個兒子。”