世紀文學經典:《百年孤獨》第8章Part 4

The situation again became as tense as it had been during the months that preceded the first war. The cockfights, instituted by the mayor himself, were suspended. Captain Aquiles Ricardo, the commander of the garrison, took over the exercise of municipal power. The Liberals looked upon him as a provocateur. "Something terrible is going to happen," úrsula would say to Aureli-ano José. "Don't go out into the street after six o'clock." The entreaties were useless. Aureli-ano José, just like Arcadio in other times, had ceased to belong to her. It was as if his return home, the possibility of existing without concerning himself with everyday necessities, had awakened in him the lewd and lazy leanings of his uncle José Arcadio. His passion for Amaranta had been extinguished without leaving any scars. He would drift around, playing pool, easing his solitude with occasional women, sacking the hiding places where úrsula had forgotten her money. He ended up coming home only to change his clothes.
"They're all alike," úrsula lamented. "At first they behave very well, they're obedient and prompt and they don't seem capable of killing a fly, but as soon as their beards appear they go to ruin." Unlike Arcadio, who had never known his real origins, he found out that he was the son of Pilar Ternera, who had hung up a hammock so that he could take his siesta in her house. More than mother and son, they were accomplices in solitude. Pilar Ternera had lost the trail of all hope. Her laugh had taken on the tones of an organ, her breasts had succumbed to the tedium of endless caressing, her stomach and her thighs had been the victims of her irrevocable fate as a shared woman, but her heart grew old without bitterness. Fat, talkative, with the airs of a matron in disgrace, she renounced the sterile illusions of her cards and found peace and consolation in other people's loves. In the house where Aureli-ano José took his siesta, the girls from the neighborhood would receive their casual lovers. "Lend me your room, Pilar," they would simply say when they were already inside. "Of course," Pilar would answer.
And if anyone was present she would explain. "I'm happy knowing that people are happy in bed."
She never charged for the service. She never refused the favor, just as she never refused the countless men who sought her out, even in the twilight of her maturity, without giving her money or love and only occasionally pleasure. Her five daughters, who inherited a burning seed, had been lost on the byways of life since adolescence. Of the two sons she managed to raise, one died fighting in the forces of Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía and the other was wounded and captured at the age of fourteen when he tried to steal a crate of chickens in a town in the swamp. In a certain way, Aureli-ano José was the tall, dark man who had been promised her for half a century by the king of hearts, and like all men sent by the cards he reached her heart when he was already stamped with the mark of death. She saw it in the cards.
"Don't go out tonight," she told him. "Stay and sleep here because Carmelita Montiel is getting tired of asking me to put her in your room."
Aureli-ano José did not catch the deep feeling of begging that was in the offer.
"Tell her to wait for me at midnight" he said. He went to the theater, where a Spanish company was putting on The Dagger of the Fox, which was really Zorzilla's play with the title changed by order of Captain Aquiles Ricardo, because the Liberals called the Conservatives Goths. Only when he handed in his ticket at the door did Aureli-ano José realize that Captain Aquiles Ricardo and two soldiers armed with rifles were searching the audience.
"Be careful, captain," Aureli-ano José warned him. "The man hasn't been born yet who can lay hands on me." The captain tried to search him forcibly and Aureli-ano José, who was unarmed, began to run. The soldiers disobeyed the order to shoot. "He's a Buendía," one of them explained. Blind with rage, the captain then snatched away the rifle, stepped into the center of the street, and took aim."
"Cowards!" he shouted. "I only wish it was Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía."

局勢又變得緊張起來，就象第一次戰爭之前的幾個月一樣。鎮長本人鼓勵的鬥雞停止了。警備隊長阿基列斯·裏十多上尉實際上掌握了民政大權。自由黨人說他是個挑撥者。“可怕的事就要發生啦，”烏蘇娜向奧雷連諾·霍塞說。“晚上六點以後不要上街。”她的哀求沒有用處。奧雷連諾·霍塞象往日的阿卡蒂奧一樣，不再屬於她了。看來，他回到家裏，能夠無憂無慮地生活，又有了他的怕怕霍·阿卡蒂奧那種好色和懶惰的傾向。奧雷連諾。霍塞對阿瑪蘭塔的熱情已經媳滅，在他心中沒有留下任何創痕。他彷彿是在隨波逐流：玩檯球，隨便找些女人解悶，去摸烏蘇娜密藏積蓄的地方；有時回家看看：也只是爲了換換衣服。
“他們都是一個樣，”烏蘇娜抱怨說。“起初，他們規矩、聽話、正經，好象連蒼蠅都不欺負，可只要一長鬍子，馬上就去作孽啦。”阿卡蒂奧始終都不知道自己的真實出身，奧雷連諾。霍塞卻跟他不同，知道他的母親是皮拉。苔列娜。她甚至在自個兒屋裏懸了個吊鋪給他睡午覺。他倆不僅是母親和兒子，而且是孤獨中的夥伴。在皮拉·苔列娜心中，最後一點希望的火星也熄滅了。她的笑聲已經低得象風琴的音響；她的乳房已經由於別人胡亂的撫弄而耷拉下去；她的肚子和大腿也象妓女一樣，遭到了百般的蹂躪；不過，她的心雖已衰老，卻無痛苦。她身體發胖，喜歡叨咕，成了不討人喜歡的女人，已經不再用紙牌頂卜毫無結果的希望，而在別人的愛情裏尋求安寧和慰藉了。奧雷連諾·霍塞午休的房子，是鄰居姑娘們和臨時的情人幽會之所。“借用一下你的房間吧，皮拉，”她們走進房間，不客氣他說。“請吧，”皮拉回答。
如果是成雙結對而來的，她就補上一句：“看見別人在牀上快活，我也快活嘛。”
替人效勞，她向來不收報酬。她從不拒絕別人的要求，就象她從不拒絕男人一樣；即使她到了青春已過的時候，這些男人也追求她，儘管他們既不給她錢，也不給她愛情，只是偶爾給她一點快樂。皮拉·苔列娜的五個女兒象母親一樣熱情，還是小姑娘的時候就走上了曲折的人生道路。從她養大的兩個兒子中，一個在奧雷連諾上校的旗幟下戰死了，另一個滿十四歲時，因爲企圖在沼澤地帶購另一個市鎮上偷一籃雞，受了傷，被捉走了。在一定程度上，奧雷連諾·霍塞就是半個世鄉己中“紅桃老K”向她預示的那個高大、黝黑的男人，但他象紙牌許諾給她的其他一切男人一樣，鑽到她的心裏人遲了，因爲死神已在他的身上打上了標記。皮拉·苔列娜在紙牌上是看出了這一點的。
“今晚別出去，”她向他說。“就睡在這兒，卡梅麗達，蒙蒂埃爾早就要我讓她到你的房間裏去了。”
奧雷連諾·霍塞沒有理解母親話裏的深刻涵義。
“告訴她半夜等我吧，”他回答。接着他就前往劇場，西班牙劇團在那兒演出戲劇《狐狸的短劍》，實際上這是索利拉的一出悲劇，可是阿基列斯·裏卡多上尉下令把劇名改了，因爲自由黨人把保守黨人叫做“哥特人”。奧雷連諾·霍塞在劇場門口拿出戲票時發現，阿基列斯·裏卡多帶若兩名持槍的士兵正在搜查入場的人。

“當心點吧，上尉，”奧孟連諾·霍塞提出警告，“能夠向我舉手的人還沒出世咧。”上尉試圖強迫搜查他，沒帶武器的奧雷連諾·霍塞拔腿就跑。士兵們沒有服從開槍的命令。“他是布恩蒂亞家的人嘛，”其中一個士兵解釋。於是，狂怒的上尉拿起一支步槍，衝到街道中間，立即瞄準。
“全是膽小鬼！”他怒吼起來。“哪怕這是奧雷連諾上校，我也不伯！”