世紀文學經典:《百年孤獨》第1章Part 6

José Arcadio Buendía was completely ignorant of the geography of the region. He knew that to the east there lay an impenetrable mountain chain and that on the other side of the mountains there was the ardent city of Riohacha, where in times past-according to what he had been told by the first Aureliano Buendía, his grandfather-Sir Francis Drake had gone crocodile hunting with cannons and that he repaired hem and stuffed them with straw to bring to Queen Elizabeth. In his youth, José Arcadio Buendía and his men, with wives and children, animals and all kinds of domestic implements, had crossed the mountains in search of an outlet to the sea, and after twenty-six months they gave up the expedition and founded Macondo, so they would not have to go back. It was, therefore, a route that did not interest him, for it could lead only to the past. To the south lay the swamps, covered with an eternal vegetable scum and the whole vast universe of the great swamp, which, according to what the gypsies said, had no limits. The great swamp in the west mingled with a boundless extension of water where there were soft-skinned cetaceans that had the head and torso of a woman, causing the ruination of sailors with the charm of their extraordinary breasts. The gypsies sailed along that route for six months before they reached the strip of land over which the mules that carried the mail passed. According to José Arcadio Buendía's calculations, the only possibility of contact with civilization lay along the northern route. So he handed out clearing tools and hunting weapons to the same men who had been with him during the founding of Macondo. He threw his directional instruments and his maps into a knapsack, and he undertook the reckless adventure.
During the first days they did not come across any appreciable obstacle. They went down along the stony bank of the river to the place where years before they had found the soldier's armor, and from there they went into the woods along a path between wild orange trees. At the end of the first week they killed and roasted a deer, but they agreed to eat only half of it and salt the rest for the days that lay ahead. With that precaution they tried to postpone the necessity of having to eat macaws, whose blue flesh had a harsh and musky taste. Then, for more than ten days, they did not see the sun again. The ground became soft and damp, like volcanic ash, and the vegetation was thicker and thicker, and the cries of the birds and the uproar of the monkeys became more and more remote, and the world became eternally sad. The men on the expedition felt overwhelmed by their most ancient memories in that paradise of dampness and silence, going back to before original sin, as their boots sank into pools of steaming oiland their machetes destroyed bloody lilies and golden salamanders. For a week, almost without speaking, they went ahead like sleepwalkers through a universe of grief, lighted only by the tenuous reflection of luminous insects, and their lungs were overwhelmed by a suffocating smell of blood. They could not return because the strip that they were opening as they went along would soon close up with a new vegetation that. almost seemed to grow before their eyes. "It's all right," José Arcadio Buendía would say. "The main thing is not to lose our bearings." Always following his compass, he kept on guiding his men toward the invisible north so that they would be able to get out of that enchanted region. It was a thick night, starless, but the darkness was becoming impregnated with a fresh and clear air. Exhausted by the long crossing, they hung up their hammocks and slept deeply for the first time in two weeks. When they woke up, with the sun already high in the sky, they were speechless with fascination. Beforethem, surrounded by ferns and palm trees, white and powdery in the silent morning light, was an enormous Spanish galleon. Tilted slightly to the starboard, it had hanging from its intact masts the dirty rags of its sails in the midst of its rigging, which was adorned with orchids. The hull, covered with an armor of petrified barnacles and soft moss, was firmly fastened into a surface of stones. The whole structure seemed to occupy its own space, one of solitude and oblivion, protected from the vices of time and the habits of the birds. Inside, where the expeditionaries explored with careful intent, there was nothing but a thick forest of flowers.

霍·阿·布恩蒂亞壓根兒不瞭解周圍地區的地理狀況。他只知道，東邊聳立着難以攀登的山嶺，山嶺後面是古城列奧阿察，據他的祖父——奧雷連諾·布恩蒂亞第一說，從前有個弗蘭西斯·德拉克爵士，曾在那兒開炮轟擊鱷魚消遣；他叫人在轟死的鱷魚肚裏填進乾草，補綴好了就送去獻給伊麗莎白女王。年輕的時候，霍·阿·布恩蒂亞和其他的人一起，帶着妻子、孩子、家畜和各種生活用具，翻過這個山嶺，希望到海邊去，可是遊蕩了兩年又兩個月，就放棄了自己的打算；爲了不走回頭路，才建立了馬孔鄉村。因此，往東的路是他不感興趣的——那隻能重複往日的遭遇，南邊是一個個永遠雜草叢生的泥潭和一大片沼澤地帶——據吉卜賽人證明，那是一個無邊無涯的世界。西邊呢，沼澤變成了遼闊的水域，那兒棲息着鯨魚狀的生物：這類生物，皮膚細嫩，頭和軀幹都象女了，寬大、迷人的胸脯常常毀掉航海的人。據吉卜賽人說，他們到達驛道經過的陸地之前，航行了幾乎半年。霍·阿·布恩蒂亞認爲，跟文明世界接觸，只能往北前進。於是，他讓那些跟他一起建立馬孔多村的人帶上鐵鍬、鋤頭和狩獵武器，把自己的定向儀具和地圖放進背囊，就去從事魯莽的冒險了。
最初幾天，他們沒有遇到特殊的困難。他們順着遍佈石頭的河岸下去，到了幾年前發現古代鎧甲的地方，並且沿着野橙子樹之間的小徑進入一片樹林。到第一個周未，他們僥倖打死了一隻牡鹿，拿它烤熟，可是決定只吃一半，把剩下的儲備起來。他們採取這個預防措施，是想延緩以金剛鸚鵡充飢的時間；這種鸚鵡的肉是藍色的，有強烈的麝香味兒。在隨後的十幾天中，他們根本沒有見到陽光。腳下的土地變得潮溼、鬆軟起來，好象火山灰似的，雜草越來越密，飛禽的啼鳴和猴子的尖叫越來越遠——四周彷彿變得慘談淒涼了。這個潮溼和寂寥的境地猶如“原罪”以前的蠻荒世界；在這兒，他們的鞋子陷進了油氣騰騰的深坑，他們的大砍刀亂劈着血紅色的百合花和金黃色的蠑螈，遠古的回憶使他們受到壓抑。整整一個星期，他們幾乎沒有說話，象夢遊人一樣在昏暗、悲涼的境地裏行進，照明的只有螢火蟲閃爍的微光，難聞的血腥氣味使他們的肺部感到很不舒服。回頭的路是沒有的，因爲他們開闢的小徑一下了就不見了，幾乎就在他們眼前長出了新的野草。“不要緊，”霍·阿·布恩蒂亞說。“主要是不迷失方向。”他不斷地盯住羅盤的指針，繼續領着大夥兒往看不見的北方前進，終於走出了魔區。他們周圍是沒有星光的黑夜，但是黑暗裏充滿了新鮮空氣，經過長途跋涉，他們已經疲憊不堪，於是懸起吊牀，兩星期中第一次安靜地睡了個大覺。醒來的時候，太陽已經升得很高，他們因此驚得發呆。在寧靜的晨光裏，就在他們前面，矗立着一艘西班牙大帆船，船體是白色、腐朽的，周圍長滿了羊齒植物和棕擱。帆船微微往右傾斜，在蘭花裝飾的索具之間，桅杆還很完整，垂着骯髒的船帆碎片，船身有一層石化貝殼和青苔形成的光滑的外殼，牢牢地陷入了堅實的土壤。看樣子，整個船身處於孤寂的地方，被人忘卻了，沒有遭到時光的侵蝕，也沒有受到飛禽的騷擾，探險隊員們小心地察看了帆船內部，裏面除了一大簇花卉，沒有任何東西。