世紀文學經典:《百年孤獨》第8章Part 6

That night he was captured when he tried to escape from Macondo, after writing a long letter to Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía in which he reminded him of their common aim to humanize the war and he wished him a final victory over the corruption of the militarists and the ambitions of the politicians in both parties. On the following day Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía had lunch with him in úrsula's house, where he was being held until a revolutionary court-martial decided his fate. It was a friendly gathering. But while the adversaries forgot the war to remember things of the past, úrsula had the gloomy feeling that her son was an intruder. She had felt it ever since she saw him come in protected by a noisy military retinue, which turned the bedrooms inside out until they were convinced there was no danger. Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía not only accepted it but he gave strict orders that no one should come closer than ten feet, not even úrsula, while the members of his escort finished placing guards about the house. He was wearing an ordinary denim uniform with no insignia of any kind and high boots with spurs that were caked with mud and dried blood. On his waist he wore a holster with the flap open and his hand, which was always on the butt of the pistol, revealed the same watchful and resolute tension as his look. His head, with deep recessions in the hairline now, seemed to have been baked in a slow oven. His face, tanned by the salt of the Caribbean, had acquired a metallic hardness. He was preserved against imminent old age by a vitality that had something to do with the coldness of his insides. He was taller than when he had left, paler and bonier, and he showed the first symptoms of resistance to nostalgia. "Good Lord," úrsula said to herself. "Now he looks like a man capable of anything." He was. The Aztec shawl that he brought Amaranta, the remembrances he spoke of at lunch, the funny stories her told were simple leftovers from his humor of a different time. As soon as the order to bury the dead in a commongrave was carried out, he assigned Colonel Roque Carnicero the minion of setting up courts--martial and he went ahead with the exhausting task of imposing radical reforms which would not leave a stone of the reestablished Conservative regime in place. "We have to get ahead of the politicians in the party," he said to his aides. "When they open their eyes to reality they'll find accomplished facts." It was then that he decided to review the titles to land that went back a hundred years and he discovered the legalized outrages of his brother, José Arcadio. He annulled the registrations with a stroke of the pen. As a last gesture of courtesy, he left his affairs for an hour and visited Rebeca to bring her up to date on what he was determined to do.
In the shadows of her house, the solitary widow who at one time had been the confidante of his repressed loves and whose persistence had saved his life was a specter out of the past. Encased in black down to her knuckles, with her heart turned to ash, she scarcely knew anything about the war. Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía had the impression that the phosphorescence of her bones was showing through her skin and that she moved in an atmosphere of Saint Elmo's fire, in a stagnant air where one could still note a hidden smell of gunpowder. He began by advising her to moderate the rigor of her mourning, to ventilate the house, to forgive the world for the death of José Arcadio. But Rebeca was already beyond any vanity. After searching for it uselessly in the taste of earth, in, the perfumed letters from Pietro Crespi, in the tempestuous bed of her husband, she had found peace in that house where memories materialized through the strength of implacable evocation and walked like human beings through the cloistered rooms, Leaning back in her wicker rocking chair, looking at Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía as if he were the one who looked like a ghost out of the past, Rebeca was not even upset by the news that the lands usurped by José Arcadio would be returned to their rightful owners.
"Whatever you decide will be done, Aureli-ano," she sighed. "I always thought and now I have the proof that you're a renegade."
The revision of the deeds took place at the same time as the summary courts-martial presided over by Colonel Gerineldo Márquez, which ended with the execution of all officers of the regular army who had been taken prisoner by the revolutionaries. The last court-martial was that of José Raquel . úrsula intervened. '"His government was the best we've ever had in Macondo," she told Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía. "I don't have to tell you anything about his good heart, about his affection for us, because you know better than anyone." Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía gave her a disapproving look.
"I can't take over the job of administering justice," he replied. "If you have something to say, tell it to the court-martial."
úrsula not only did that she also brought all of the mothers of the revolutionary officers who lived in Macondo to testify. One by one the old women who had been founders of the town, several of whom had taken part in the daring crossing of the mountains, praised the virtues of General . úrsula was the last in line. Her gloomy dignity, the weight of her name, the convincing vehemence of her declaration made the scale of justice hesitate for a moment. "You have taken this horrible game very seriously and you have done well- because you are doing your duty," she told the members of the court. "But don't forget that as long as God gives us life we will still be mothers and no matter how revolutionary you may be, we have the right to pull down your pants and give you a whipping at the first sign of disrespect." The court retired to deliberate as those words still echoed in the school that had been turned into a barracks. At midnight General José Raquel was sentenced to death. Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía, in s
pite of the violent recriminations of úrsula, refused to commute the sentence. A short while before dawn he visited the condemned man in the room used as a cell.
"Remember, old friend," he told him. "I'm not shooting you. It's the revolution that's shooting you."
General did not even get up from the cot when he saw him come in.
"Go to hell, friend," he answered.

這天夜裏，蒙卡達將軍打算逃出馬孔多的時候被捕；他事先寫好了一封給奧雷連諾上校的長信，信中提到了他倆想使戰爭變得更加人道的共同心願，並且希望他在對軍閥的腐敗和兩黨政客的野心的鬥爭中，取得最後勝利。第二天，奧雷連諾上校就跟蒙卡達將軍在烏蘇娜的宅千里共進午餐了，因爲將軍是拘押在這兒，等待革命軍事法庭決定他的命運的。這是一次友好的聚會。然而，當兩個敵對者忘掉戰爭、回憶住事的時候，烏蘇娜擺脫不了一種陰暗的感覺：他的兒子是象強盜一樣回國的。他帶着人數很多的衛隊剛一跨進宅子的門檻，她就產生了這種感覺，因爲衛隊士兵爲了弄清有沒有什麼危險，把所有的房間都翻了個底兒朝天。奧雷連諾上校不但允許這麼幹，而且用不容反駁的聲調發出命令，在房子周圍沒有安好哨兵之前，不準住任何人（甚至烏蘇娜）靠近他。他身上穿着沒有任何等級標誌的粗布軍服，腳上穿着污泥和凝血弄髒的高統馬靴。掛在腰邊的大口徑手槍皮套是解開鈕釦的，在他那一直緊張地握着槍柄的手指上，可以看出他的眼神裏流露的那種警覺和決心。他的頭現在已有明顯的禿頂，彷彿在文火上烤乾了。加勒比海鹹水浸過的面孔，已經象金屬那樣硬梆梆的。他在用幹勁來抵禦不可避免的衰老，而這種幹勁跟他內心的冷酷有密切的關係。現在，他顯得比從前更高、更蒼白、更瘦了，第一次使人看出，他在儘量壓抑對親人的感情。“我的滅，”不安的烏蘇娜想道。“他象一個啥事都千得出來的人啦！”他確實成了這樣的人。他帶給阿瑪蘭塔的阿茲特克披中，他在餐桌邊的回憶，他所講的奇聞趣事，只是使人稍微想起昔日的奧雷連諾。還沒來得及把花者葬人公墓，他就指示羅克·卡尼瑟洛上校趕緊成立軍事法庭，自己卻去開始進行繁重而激烈的改革，以便徹底摧毀保守制度搖搖欲墜的大廈。“咱們必須趕在自由黨政客們前面，”他向自己的助手們說。“當他們最終用清醒的眼光看待周圍的現實時，一切都已幹好了。”正是這個時候，他決定重新審覈最近五年間登記的土地所有權，而已發現了法律認可的、他的哥哥霍·阿卡蒂奧掠奪的土地。他大筆一揮就註銷了登記。接着，爲了表示最後的禮貌，他把一切事情延擱了一個小時，去向雷貝卡說明自己的決定。
這個孤伶伶的寡婦往日曾經知道他那隱祕的愛情，而且她的頑強救過他的命；但在晦暗的客廳裏，上校覺得她簡直象個幽靈。這個女人裹着一件長到腳邊的黑衣服，早已心灰意冷，大概一點也不知道戰爭的情況。他覺得，她的骨骼發出的磷光透過了皮膚，她就在充滿磷火的空氣中浮動了；在這水潭一樣凝滯的空氣裏，還感覺得到輕微的火藥味。奧雷連諾上校首先勸她節袁，打開窗子，爲霍·阿卡蒂奧之死原諒別人。可是，雷貝卡已不需要空虛的、塵世的歡樂。她曾在泥土的酸澀氣味中尋求歡樂，在皮埃特羅·克列斯比灑了香水的信中尋求歡樂，在丈夫的牀上尋求歡樂，但都枉然，最後纔在這座房子裏得到寧靜；在這裏，在她的遇想中，往日的形象重新變成了活人，經常在與世隔絕的房間裏徘徊。雷貝卡仰身靠在柳條搖椅裏，仔細地審視着奧雷連諾上校，彷彿他是一個鬼怪；聽說霍·阿卡蒂奧侵佔的土地將要歸還原主，她也沒有表現任何激動。
“你願咋辦就咋辦，奧雷連諾，”她嘆口氣說。“你不愛自己的親人，我一直這麼認爲，現在看來我井沒弄錯。”
土地所有權的重新審覈和軍事法庭的審理是同時進行的，法庭由格休列爾多·馬克斯上校主持，處決了所有被俘的政府軍軍官。最後審訊的是霍塞。 拉凱爾·蒙卡達將軍。烏蘇娜爲他辯護。“他是我們馬孔多最好的一個鎮長，”她向奧雷連諾上校說。“我不用說他的好心腸，不用說他對咱們家的熱愛，因爲你知道得比誰都清楚。”奧雷連諾上校譴責地瞥了她一眼。
“我無權裁決，”他回答說。“如果你有什麼要說，就向軍事法庭說吧。”
烏蘇娜不僅親自出動，還把在馬孔多出生的那些起義軍官的母親帶來作證。這些最老的市鎮居民——其中一些甚至參加過翻山越嶺的大膽的進軍——一個接一個地誇獎蒙卡達將軍的美德。烏蘇娜是這支隊伍裏的最後一名。她那悲傷而尊嚴的神情，她那名字的分量，她那話裏的信心，使得審判的天秤遲疑了片刻。“你們玩弄這種恐怖的把戲是很認真的，你們做得對嘛，因爲你們在履行自己的職責，”她向法庭成員們說，“可是你們不要忘記：只要我們活在世上，我們就是你們的母親，你們無論多麼革命，一旦不尊重我們，我們都有權脫下你們的褲子，用皮帶狠狠地抽。”法庭成員退下去商量的時候，這些話還在已經變成營房的教室裏發出回聲。
半夜，霍塞·拉凱爾·蒙卡達將軍被判死刑。儘管烏蘇娜強烈譴責，奧雷連諾上校仍然拒絕減輕刑罰。天亮之前不久，他在往常當作囚室的房間裏探望了判處死刑的人。
“記住，老朋友，”奧雷連諾上校向他說。“不是我要槍斃你。是革命要槍斃你。”
蒙卡達將軍看見他進屋的時候，甚至沒從牀上站起身來。
“見鬼去吧，朋友，”他回答。