世紀文學經典:《百年孤獨》第18章Part9

He remained shut up, absorbed in the parchments, which he was slowly unraveling and whose meaning, nevertheless, he was unable to interpret. Jos?Arcadio would bring slices of ham to him in his room, sugared flowers which left a spring-like aftertaste in his mouth, and on two occasions a glass of fine wine. He was not interested in the parchments, which he thought of more as an esoteric pastime, but his attention was attracted by the rare wisdom and the inexplicable knowledge of the world that his desolate kinsman had. He discovered then that he could understand written English and that between parchments he had gone from the first page to the last of the six volumes of the encyclopedia as if it were a novel. At first he attributed to that the fact that Aureliano could speak about Rome as if he had lived there many years, but he soon became aware that he knew things that were not in the encyclopedia, such as the price of items. “Everything is known,?was the only reply he received from Aureliano when he askedhim where he had got that information from. Aureliano, for his part, was surprised that Jos?Arcadio when seen from close by was so different from the image that he had formed of him when he saw him wandering through the house. He was capable of laughing, of allowing himself from time to time a feeling of nostalgia for the past of the house, and of showing concern for the state of misery present in Melquíades?room. That drawing closer together of two solitary people of the same blood was far from friendship, but it did allow them both to bear up better under the unfathomable solitude that separated and united them at the same time. Jos?Arcadio could then turn to Aureliano to untangle certain domestic problems that exasperated him. Aureliano, in turn, could sit and read on the porch, waiting for the letters from Amaranta ?rsula, which still arrived with the usual punctuality, and could use the bathroom, from which Jos?Arcadio had banished him when he arrived.
One hot dawn they both woke up in alarm at an urgent knocking on the street door. It was a dark old man with large green eyes that gave his face a ghostly phosphorescence and with a cross of ashes on his forehead. His clothing in tatters, his shoes cracked, the old knapsack on his shoulder his only luggage, he looked like a beggar, but his bearing had a dignity that was in frank contradiction to his appearance. It was only necessary to look at him once, even in the shadows of the parlor, to realize that the secret strength that allowed him to live was not the instinct of self-preservation but the habit of fear. It was Aureliano Amador, the only survivor of Colonel Aureliano Buendía’s seventeen sons, searching for a respite in his long and hazardous existence as a fugitive. He identified himself, begged them to give him refuge in that house which during his nights as a pariah he had remembered as the last redoubt of safety left for him in life. But Jos?Arcadio and Aureliano did not remember him. Thinking that he was a tramp, they pushed him into the street. They both saw from the doorway the end of a drama that had began before Jos?Arcadio had reached the age of reason. Two policemen who had been chasing Aureliano Amador for years, who had tracked him like bloodhounds across half the world, came out from among the almond trees on the opposite sidewalk and took two shots with their Mausers which neatly penetrated the cross of ashes.
Ever since he had expelled the children from the house, Jos?Arcadio was really waiting for news of an ocean liner that would leave for Naples before Christmas. He had told Aureliano and had even made plans to set him up in a business that would bring him a living, because the baskets of food had stopped coming since Fernanda’s burial. But that last dream would not be fulfilled either. One September morning, after having coffee in the kitchen with Aureliano, Jos?Arcadio was finishing his daily bath when through the openings in the tiles the four children he had expelled from the house burst in. Without giving him time to defend himself, they jumped into the pool fully clothed, grabbed him by the hair, and held his head under the water until the bubbling of his death throes ceased on the surface and his silent and pale dolphin body dipped down to the bottom of the fragrant water. Then they took out the three sacks of gold from the hiding place which was known only to them and their victim. It was such a rapid,methodical, and brutal action that it was like a military operation. Aureliano, shut up in his room, was not aware of anything. That afternoon, having missed him in the kitchen, he looked for Jos?Arcadio all over the house and found him floating on the perfumed mirror of the pool, enormous and bloated and still thinking about Amaranta. Only then did he understand how much he had began to love him.

奧雷連諾·布恩蒂亞繼續獨自一人坐在房間裏鑽研羊皮紙手稿，逐漸把它全部譯了出來，儘管上面的意思依然不得其解。霍·阿卡蒂奧經常把一片片火腿，把一些使人嘴裏留下春天餘味的花狀糖果，送到奧雷連諾·布恩蒂亞房間裏；有兩次，他來的時候，甚至還拿着一杯上等葡萄酒。霍。 阿卡蒂奧並不想了解羊皮紙手稿，他總覺得那是一本只適合古代文人閱讀的閒書，但他對這個被人忘卻的親戚卻很感興趣，沒有想到他居然掌握了罕見的學問和深奧的知識。原來，奧雷連諾。 布恩蒂亞懂得英文， 在研究羊皮紙手稿的間隙中，他看完了六卷本的英國百科全書，象看長篇小說一樣，從第一頁看到最後一頁。關於羅馬，奧雷連諾·布恩蒂亞可以侃侃而談，好象一個在那兒住了多年的人，霍·阿卡蒂奧起先把這歸因於他看的百科全書，但是很快就明白他的親戚還知道許多不可能從百科全書上汲取的東西：譬如物價。問他是從哪兒知道這些情況的，奧雷連諾。 布恩蒂亞總是回答，“一切都可以認識嘛！”奧雷連諾·布恩蒂亞也覺得驚異，他只是從遠處望見霍·阿卡蒂奧在一個個房間裏踱來踱去，但是在有所瞭解以後，才知道他不象自己所想的那樣。他發現霍，阿卡蒂奧不但善於笑，偶爾還會情不自禁地懷念這座房子昔日的宏偉氣派，看見梅爾加德斯房間裏的一片荒羌景象就難過地嘆氣。兩個同血統的單身漢這樣接近，距離友誼自然還遠，可是這樣接近畢竟排遣了他倆的無限孤獨，他們倆既分離又聯合。現在，霍·阿卡蒂奧可以去找奧雷連諾·布恩蒂亞，請他幫助解決一些迫切的問題，因爲霍。 阿卡蒂奧本人對這些事情毫無辦法，簡直不知道怎麼處理，而奧雷連諾。 布恩蒂亞也得到了霍·阿卡蒂奧的同意，可以坐在長廊上看書，收讀阿瑪蘭塔·烏蘇娜繼續以從前那種一本正經的態度寫給他的信，使用霍·阿卡蒂奧從前不讓他進去的浴室。
一個炎熱的早晨，他們被一陣急促的敲門聲驚醒。敲門的是一個陌生老頭兒。一對綠瑩瑩的大眼睛閃着幽靈似的光芒。老頭兒有一副嚴峻的面孔，額上現出一個灰十字。那件襤褸的衣服，那雙破舊不堪的皮鞋，那隻搭在肩上的舊麻袋——這是他唯一的財產——使他顯出一副窮漢的模樣，但是他的舉止依然顯得尊嚴，跟他的外貌形成鮮明的對比。在半明不暗的客廳中，甚至一眼就能看出，支持這個人生存的內在力量，並不是自衛的本能，而是經常的恐懼。原來，這是奧雷連諾·阿馬多。在奧雷連諾上校的十六個兒子當中，他是唯一倖存的人。一種完全意外的逃犯生活，把他弄得精疲力竭，他渴望休息。他說出自己的名字，懇求他倆讓他在房子裏住下來，因爲在那些不眠之夜裏，他曾把這座房子看作是他在大地上的最後一個避難所。誰知霍。 阿卡蒂奧和奧雷連諾·布恩蒂亞一點也不知道這個親戚，他倆把他錯當成一個流浪漢，把他猛地推到街上。他倆站在門口，目睹了早在霍·阿卡蒂奧出世之前就開始的一場戲劇的結局。在街道對面的幾棵杏樹下，忽然出現警察局的兩個密探——他們在過去的許多年中，一直在追捕奧雷連諾·阿馬多，——他們象兩條獵犬似的順着他的蹤跡從門前跑過，只聽到“砰砰”兩聲槍響，奧雷連諾·阿馬多一頭栽倒在地上，兩顆子彈正好打中他額上的那個十字。
在一羣野孩子被趕出房子之後，霍·阿卡蒂奧在生活中期待的就是遠航大西洋的輪船消息，他必須趕在聖誕節之前到達那不勒斯。他把這件事告訴奧雷連諾·布恩蒂亞，甚至想爲他做一筆生意，使他能夠生活下去，因爲菲蘭達去世之後，再也沒有人送過一籃子食物來了，可是這最後一個理想也註定要變成泡影。有一次，七月的一天清晨，霍·阿卡蒂奧在廚房裏喝完奧雷連諾·布恩蒂亞煮的一杯咖啡，正在浴室裏結束自己照例的沐浴程式，突然從瓦屋頂上跳下那四個已被趕出房子的男孩，他們不等他醒悟過來，連衣服還沒脫下，就撲進浴池，揪住霍·阿卡蒂奧的頭髮，把他的腦袋按在水裏，直到水面不再冒出氣泡，直到教皇的繼承人無聲的蒼白的身軀沉到香氣四溢的水底。然後，這羣男孩趕緊從只有他們和受難者知道的那個地窖裏取出三袋金幣，扛在肩上跑掉了。整個戰鬥是按軍事要求進行的，有組織的，迅捷而又殘忍。奧雷連諾。 布恩蒂亞正獨自一人坐在自己的房間裏，他對一切都沒懷疑。到了晚上，他走進廚房，發現霍·阿卡蒂奧不在那兒，便開始在整座房子裏尋找起來，終於在浴室裏找到了。霍。 阿卡蒂奧巨大膨脹的身軀漂在香氣四溢、平靜如鏡的浴池水面上，他似乎還在思念着阿瑪蘭塔哩。這時，奧雷連諾。 布恩蒂亞才感到自己多麼喜歡他。