世紀文學經典:《百年孤獨》第11章Part 9

Looking at the sketch that Aureli-ano Triste drew on the table and that was a direct descendent of the plans with which José Arcadio Buendía had illustrated his project for solar warfare, úrsula confirmed her impression that time was going in a circle. But unlike his forebear, Aureli-ano Triste did not lose any sleep or appetite nor did he torment anyone with crises of ill humor, but he considered the most harebrained of projects as immediate possibilities, made rational calculations about costs and dates, and brought them off without any intermediate exasperation. If Aureli-ano Segun-do had something of his great--grandfather in him and lacked something of Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía, it was an absolute indifference to mockery, and he gave the money to bring the railroad with the same lighthearted air with which he had given it for his brother's absurd navigation project. Aureli-ano Triste consulted the calendar and left the following Wednesday, planning to return after the rains had passed. There was nomore news of him. Aureli-ano Centeno, overwhelmed by the abundance of the factory, had already begun to experiment with the production of ice with a base of fruit juices instead of water, and without knowing it or thinking about it, he conceived the essential fundamentals for the invention of sherbet. In that way he planned to diversify the production of an enterprise he considered his own, because his brother showed no signs of returning after the rains had passed and a whole summer had gone by with no news of him. At the start of another winter, however, a woman who was washing clothes in the river during the hottest time of the day ran screaming down the main street in an alarming state of commotion.
"It's coming," she finally explained. "Something frightful, like a kitchen dragging a village behind it."
At that moment the town was shaken by a whistle with a fearful echo and a loud, panting respiration. During the previous weeks they had seen the gangs who were laying ties and tracks and no one paid attention to them because they thought it was some new trick of the gypsies, coming back with whistles and tambourines and their age-old and discredited song and dance about the qualities of some concoction put together by journey-man geniuses of Jerusalem. But when they recovered from the noise of the whistles and the snorting, all the inhabitants ran out into the street and saw Aureli-ano Triste waving from the locomotive, and in a trance they saw the flower-bedecked train which was arriving for the first time eight months late. The innocent yellow train that was to bring so many ambiguities and certainties, so many pleasant and unpleasant moments, so many changes, calamities, and feelings of nostalgia to Ma-condo.

種草圖就相信自己的懷疑是正確的奧雷連諾·特里斯特在桌上畫的草圖，簡直是霍·阿·布恩蒂亞從前附在太陽戰《指南》裏的那種圖解的“後代”，烏蘇娜一見這：時間正在循環。但是跟祖先不同，奧雷連諾·特里斯特沒有失去睡眠或胃口，也沒有對任何人發過脾氣。相反地，他考慮最難於置信的計劃時，堅信這種計劃最近期間就能實現，而且合理地計算實現計劃的費用和日期，毫無一點疑慮。如果說奧雷連諾第二在什麼事情上象曾祖父，而不象奧雷連諾上校，那就是他不善於汲取過去的痛苦教訓一他輕率地把錢花在鐵路上，猶如從前把錢花在兄弟的荒唐的航行計劃上一樣。奧雷連諾·特里斯特看了看日曆，說明雨季以後回來，就莊星期三離開了。此後再也沒有聽到他的消息。奧雷連諾·森騰諾被工廠的剩餘產品壓得喘不上氣，開始用果汁代替涼水製冰的試驗，意外地爲冰淇淋的生產奠定了基礎，打算用這個辦法使工廠的生產多樣化；這個工廠他已經認爲是自己的了，因爲兄弟沒有一點生還的跡象：雨季過去了，整個夏季也過去了，他卻沓無音訊，然而，冬初，在一夭當中最熱的時侯，一個在河邊洗衣服的女人，異常興奮地奔上市鎮大街，狂叫起來：
“那邊來了一個嚇人的東西，”她終於說道。“好象安了輪子的廚房，後面拖着一個村鎮。”
在這片刻間，馬孔多被可怕的汽笛聲和噗哧噗哧的噴氣聲嚇得戰粟起來。幾個星期之前，許多人曾看見一大羣工人鋪設枕木和鋼軌，可是誰也沒去注意，因爲大家以爲這是吉卜賽人的折把戲——他們又來了，帶來了笛鼓和喪失了名譽的古老歌舞，並且吹噓耶路撒冷天才人物發明的一種古怪藥水的優點。可是，馬孔多居民們從喧噪的汽笛聲和噴氣聲中清醒過來以後，都涌上街頭，看見了從機車上向他們招手致意的奧雷連諾·特里斯特，看見了第一次晚點幾個月的五彩繽紛的一列火車。這列樣子好看的黃色火車註定要給馬孔多帶來那麼多的懷疑和肯定，帶來那麼多的好事和壞事，帶來那多的變化、災難和憂愁。