世紀文學經典:《百年孤獨》第12章Part8

"He's very sad," úrsula answered, "because he thinks that you're going to die."
"Tell him," the colonel said, smiling, "that a person doesn't die when he should but when he can."
The omen of the, dead father stirred up the last remnant of pride that was left in his heart, but he confused it with a sudden gust of strength. It was for that reason that he hounded úrsula to tell him where in the courtyard the gold coins that they had found inside the plaster Saint Joseph were buried. "You'll never know," she told him with a firmness inspired by an old lesson. "One day," she added, "the owner of that fortune will appear and only he can dig it up." No one knew why a man who had always been so generous had begun to covet money with such anxiety, and not the modest amounts that would have been enough to resolve an emergency, but a fortune of such mad size that the mere mention of it left Aureli-ano Segun-do awash in amazement. His old fellow party members, to whom he went asking for help, hid so as not to receive him. It was around that time that he was heard to say. "The only difference today between Liberals and Conservatives is that the Liberals go to mass at five o'clock and the Conservatives at eight." Nevertheless he insisted with such perseverance, begged in such a way, broke his code of dignity to such a degree, that with a little help from here and a little more from there, sneaking about everywhere, with a slippery diligence and a pitiless perseverance, he managed to put together in eight months more money than úrsula had buried. Then he visited the ailing Colonel Geri-neldo Márquez so that he would help him start the total war.
At a certain time Colonel Geri-neldo Márquez was really the only one who could have pulled, even from his paralytics chair, the musty strings of rebellion. After the armistice of Neerlandia, while Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía took refuge with his little gold fishes, he kept in touch with the rebel officers who had been faithful to him until the defeat. With them he waged the sad war of daily humiliation, of entreaties and petitions, of come-back-tomorrow, of any-time-now, of we're-studying--your-case-with-the-proper-attention; the war hopelessly lost against the many yours-most-trulys who should have signed and would never sign the lifetime pensions. The other war, the bloody one of twenty years, did not cause them as much damage as the corrosive war of eternal postponements. Even Colonel Geri-neldo Márquez, who escaped three attempts on his life, survived five wounds, and emerged unscathed from innumerable battles, succumbed to that atrocious siege of waiting and sank into the miserable defeat of old age, thinking of Amaranta among the diamond-shaped patches of light in a borrowed house. The last veterans of whom he had word had appeared photographed in a newspaper with their faces shamelessly raised beside an anonymous president of the republic who gave them buttons with his likeness on them to wear in their lapels and returned to them a flag soiled with blood and gunpowder so that they could place it on their coffins. The others, more honorable. were still waiting for a letter in the shadow of public charity, dying of hunger, living through rage, ratting of old age amid the exquisite shit of glory. So that when Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía invited him to start a mortal conflagration that would wipe out all vestiges of a regime of corruption and scandal backed by the foreign invader, Colonel Geri-neldo Márquez could not hold back a shudder of compassion.
"Oh, Aureli-ano," he sighed. "I already knew that you were old, but now I realize that you're a lot older than you look."

“他很難過，”烏蘇娜回答。“他以爲你該死啦。”
“告訴他吧，”上校笑着說。“人不是該死的時候死的，而是能死的時候死的。”
亡父的預言激起了他心中最後剩下的一點兒傲氣，可是他把這種剎那間的傲氣錯誤地當成了突然進發的力量。他向母親追問，在聖約瑟夫石膏像裏發現的金幣究竟藏在哪兒。“這你永遠不會知道，”由於過去的痛苦教訓，她堅定地說。“有朝一日財主來了，他才能把它挖出來，誰也無法理解，一個經常無私的人，爲什麼突然貪婪地渴望錢財，渴望的不是日常需要的少數錢，而是一大筆財產——只要提起這筆財產的數量，甚至奧雷連諾第二也驚得發呆。過去的黨內同僚，奧雷連訪問他們要錢，他們都避免跟他相見。下面這句話正是他這時說的：”現在，自由黨人和保守黨人之間的區別是：自由黨人舉行早禱，保守黨人舉行晚禱。“然而，他那麼堅持不懈地努力，那麼苦苦地懇求，那麼不顧自尊心，四處奔走，每處都得到一點兒幫助，在八個月中弄到的餞就超過了烏蘇娜所藏的數目。隨後，他去患病的格林列爾多·馬克斯上校，希望上校幫助他重新發動全面戰爭。
有一段時間，格林列爾多上校雖然癱倒在搖椅裏，卻真是唯一能夠拉動起義操縱桿的人。在尼蘭德停故協定之後，當奧雷連諾上校躲在小金魚中間的時候，格林列爾多·馬克斯上校仍跟那些最終沒有背棄他的起義軍官保持着聯繫。他跟他們又經歷了一場戰爭，這場戰爭就是經常丟臉、祈求、申請，就是沒完沒了的回答：“明天來吧”，“已經快啦”，“我們正公認真研究你的問題”；這場註定失敗的戰爭是反對“敬啓者”的，反對“你的忠實僕人”的，他們一直答應發給老兵終身養老金，可是始終不給。前一場血腥的二十年戰爭給予老兵的損害，都比不上這一場永遠拖延的毀滅性戰爭。格林列爾多。 馬克斯上校本人逃脫過三次謀殺，五次負傷未死，在無數次戰鬥中安然無損，由丁忍受不了無窮等待的折磨，就接受了最終的失敗——衰老；他坐在自己的搖椅裏，望着地板上透進的陽光，思念着阿瑪蘭塔。他再也沒有見到自己的戰友們，只有一次在報上看見一張照片，幾個老兵站在一個不知名的共和國總統旁邊，無恥地仰着面孔；總統拿自己的像章贈給他們，讓他們戴在翻領上面，並且歸還他們一面沾滿塵土和鮮血的旗幟，讓他們能把它放在自己的棺材上。其他最體面的老兵，仍在社會慈善團體的照顧下等待養老金的消息；其中一些人餓得要死，另一些人繼續在惱怒中過着晚年生活，並且在光榮的糞堆裏慢慢地腐爛。因此，奧雷連諾上校前來找他，主張誓死點燃無情的戰火，推翻外國侵略者支持的腐敗透頂的可恥的政府時，格林列爾多簡直無法壓抑自己憐憫的感情。
“唉，奧雷連諾，”他嘆了口氣。“我知道你老了，可我今天才明白，你比看上去老得多了。”