世紀文學經典:《百年孤獨》第20章Part4大綱

“That Colonel Aureliano, Buendía fought thirty-two civil wars and lost them all,?Aureliano answered. “That the army hemmed in and machine-gunned three thousand workers and that their bodies were carried off to be thrown into the sea on a train with two hundred cars.?
The priest measured him with a Pitying look.
“Oh, my son,?he signed. “It’s enough for me to be sure that you and I exist at this moment.?
So Aureliano and Amaranta ?rsula accepted the version of the basket, not because they believed it, but because it spared them their terror. As the pregnancy advanced they were becoming a single being, they were becoming more and more integrated in the solitude of a house that needed only one last breath to be knocked down. They restricted themselves to an essential area, from Fernanda’s bedroom, where the charms of sedentary love were visible, to the beginning of the porch, where Amaranta ?rsula would sit to sew bootees and bonnets for the newborn baby and Aureliano, would answer the occasional letters from the wise Catalonian. The rest of the house was given over to the tenacious assault of destruction. The silver shop, Melquíades?room, the primitive and silent realm of Santa Sofía de la Piedad remained in the depths of a domestic jungle that no one would have had the courage to penetrate. Surrounded by the voracity of nature, Aureliano and Amaranta ?rsula continued cultivating the oregano and the begonias and defended their world with demarcations of quicklime, building the last trenches in the age-old war between man and ant. Her long and neglected hair, the splotches that were beginning to appear on her face, the swelling of her legs, the deformation of her former lovemaking weasel’s body had changed Amaranta ?rsula from the youthful creature she had been when she arrived at the house with the cage of luckless canaries and her captive husband, but it did not change the vivacity of her spirit. “Shit,?she would say, laughingly. “Who would have thought that we really would end up living like cannibals!?The last thread that joined them to the world was broken on the sixth month of pregnancy when they received a letter that obviously was not from the wise Catalonian. It had been mailed in Barcelona, but the envelope was addressed in conventional blue ink by an official hand and it had the innocent and impersonal look of hostile messages. Aureliano snatched it out of Amaranta ?rsula’s hands as she was aboutto open it.
“Not this one,?he told her. “I don’t want to know what it says.?

“奧雷連諾上校發動過三十二次國內戰爭，但每一次都失敗了，”奧雷連諾·布恩蒂亞回答。“政府軍包圍並打死了三千多工人，後來又用一列二百節車廂的火車把屍體運走，扔到了海里。”
神父以充滿憐憫的目光打量了他一眼。
“哎，我的孩子，”他嘆息道，“對我來講，單是相信我們兩人這會兒還活着，就足夠了。”
這樣，奧雷連諾·布恩蒂亞和阿瑪蘭塔·烏蘇娜只好默認關於柳條筐的說法，這倒不是因爲他們相信它的真實性，而是它能把他們從苦惱的恐懼中解脫出來。隨着阿瑪蘭塔·烏蘇娜腹中胎兒的逐漸成長，他們越來越協調一致，在這座只需最後一陣風就會倒塌的房子裏，他們越來越習慣於孤獨的生活。他們把自己的活動限制在一個最小的空間裏，這空間從菲蘭達的臥室開始，直到長廊的一角。他們在菲蘭達的臥室裏，已經感到了夫婦生活的歡樂。奧雷連諾·布恩蒂亞給博學的加泰隆尼亞人寫回信時。阿瑪蘭塔·烏蘇娜就在長廊上爲未來的嬰兒編織毛線襪和小便帽。然而，房子的其他部分在破壞力的不斷衝擊下都已搖搖欲墜，首飾作坊、梅爾加德斯的房間、聖索菲婭·德拉佩德那個原始的寂靜王國，都陷在房子的深處，就象陷在一片茂密的叢林裏，誰也沒有足夠的勇氣走進這片叢林。貪得無厭的大自然從四面八方包圍着奧雷連諾·布恩蒂亞和阿瑪蘭塔·烏蘇娜，他們繼續栽種牛至草和秋海棠，用生石灰劃一條分界線，圍住自己的世界，在早已開始的螞蟻和人的戰鬥中築起最後一個堡壘。這時。阿瑪蘭塔·烏蘇娜頭髮很長，沒有梳理，臉上現出黑斑，兩腿浮腫，她那古希臘人似的柔和體形也由於懷孕變醜了，已經不象她提着一籠不合心意的金絲雀、帶着俘獲的丈夫回到家裏的那一天那麼年輕了，但依然保持着原來的振奮精神。“真見鬼！”她笑着說，“誰能想到，咱們最後竟會象野獸一樣生活！”在阿瑪蘭塔·烏蘇娜懷孕的第六個月，他們跟外界的最後一點聯繫也中斷了，當時他們收到一封信，看得出這封信不是出自博學的加泰隆尼亞人之手。它是從巴塞羅那寄出的，但信封上的地址卻是用藍墨水寫的，筆跡工整，有點象官方的通知。信的樣子普普通通，無可指摘，但又好象是不懷好意的人寄來的，阿瑪蘭塔。 烏蘇娜正準備拆信，奧雷連諾。 布恩蒂亞卻從她手裏奪了過去。
“我不要看，”他說。“我不想知道信裏寫的什麼。”