世紀文學經典:《百年孤獨》第10章Part 3

It was soon discovered that Father Antonio Isabel was preparing him for his first communion. He was teaching him the catechism as he shaved the necks of his roosters. He explained to him with simple examples, as he put the brooding hens into their nests, how it had occurred to God on the second day of creation that chickens would be formed inside of an egg. From that time on the parish priest began to show the signs of senility that would lead him to say years later that the devil had probably won his rebellion against God, and that he was the one who sat on the heavenly throne, without revealing his true identity in order to trap the unwary. Warmed up by the persistence of his mentor, in a few months José Arcadio Segun-do came to be as adept in theological tricks used to confuse the devil as he was skilled in the tricks of the cockpit. Amaranta made him a linen suit with a collar and tie, bought him a pair of white shoes, and engraved his name in gilt letters on the ribbon of the candle. Two nights before the first communion, Father Antonio Isabel closeted himself with him in the sacristy to hear his confession with the help of a dictionary of sins. It was such a long list that the aged priest, used to going to bed at six o'clock, fell asleep in his chair before it was over. The interrogation was a revelation for José Arcadio Segun-do. It did not surprise him that the priest asked him if he had done bad things with women, and he honestly answered no, but he was upset with the question as to whether he had done them with animals. The first Friday in May he received communion, tortured by curiosity. Later on he asked Petronio, the sickly sexton who lived in the belfry and who, according to what they said, fed himself on bats, about it, and Petronio, answered him: "There are some corrupt Christians who do their business with female donkeys." José Arcadio Segun-do still showed so much curiosity and asked so many questions that Petronio lost his patience.
"I go Tuesday nights," he confessed. "if you promise not to tell anyone I'll take you next Tuesday."
Indeed, on the following Tuesday Petronio came down out of the tower with a wooden stool which until then no one had known the use of, and he took José Arcadio Segun-do to a nearby pasture. The boy became so taken with those nocturnal raids that it was a long time before he was seen at Catarino's. He became a cockfight man. "Take those creatures somewhere else," úrsula ordered him the first time she saw him come in with his fine fighting birds. "Roosters have already brought too much bitterness to this house for you to bring us any more." José Arcadio Segun-do took them away without any argument, but he continued breeding them at the house of Pilar Ternera, his grandmother, who gave him everything he needed in exchange for having him in her house. He soon displayed in the cockpit the wisdom that Father Antonio Isabel had given him, and he made enough money not only to enrich his brood but also to look for a man's satisfactions. úrsula compared him with his brother at that time and could not understand howthe twins, who looked like the same person in childhood, had ended up so differently.
Her perplexity did not last very long, for quite soon Aureli-ano Segun-do began to show signs of laziness and dissipation. While he was shut up in Melquíades' room he was drawn into himself the way Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía had been in his youth. But a short time after the Treaty of Neerlandia, a piece of chance took him out of his withdrawn self and made him face the reality of the world. A young woman who was selling numbers for the raffle of an accordion greeted him with a great deal of familiarity. Aureli-ano Segun-do was not surprised, for he was frequently confused with his brother. But he did not clear up the mistake, not even when the girl tried to soften his heart with sobs, and she ended taking him to her room. She liked him so much from that first meeting that she fixed things so that he would win the accordion in the raffle. At the end of two weeks Aureli-ano Segun-do realized that the woman had been going to bed alternately with him and his brother, thinking that they were the same man, and instead of making things clear, he arranged to prolong the situation. He did not return to Melquíades' room. He would spend his afternoons in the courtyard, learning to play the accordion by ear over the protests of úrsula, who at that time had forbidden music in the house because of the mourning and who, in addition, despised the accordion as an instrument worthy only of the vagabond heirs of Francisco the Man. Nevertheless, Aureli-ano Segun-do became a virtuoso on the accordion and he still was after he had married and had children and was one of the most respected men in Macon-do.

她很快知道，安東尼奧·伊薩貝爾神父準備讓霍·阿卡蒂奧第二參加第一次聖餐禮。神父一面修剪鬥雞脖子上的毛，一面給他講教義要則。當他兩人一起把抱蛋的母雞放進窩裏的時候，神父就用簡單的例子向他解釋，在創世的第二天，上帝是如何決定在卵裏孵出小雞的。那時，安東尼奧·伊薩貝爾神父已經開始顯出老年痴呆病的初步症狀；幾年以後，他竟胡言亂語地説，彷彿魔鬼向上帝造反時取得了勝利，登上了天國的王位，而且為了把那些冒失的人誘入圈套，沒向任何人暴露他那真正的身份。在這個良師堅持不懈的教導下，經過幾個月工夫，霍·阿卡蒂奧第二不僅成了一個利用神學奧祕挫敗魔鬼的行家，而且成了一個鬥雞專家，阿瑪蘭塔給他縫了一件有硬領和領結的亞麻布衣服，給他買了一雙白色鞋子，並且在他的領結上用金線繡了他的名字。在聖餐禮之前的兩個夜晚，安東尼奧·伊薩貝爾神父把自己和霍·阿卡蒂奧第二關在聖器室裏，按照一份罪孽錄聽取他的懺悔。罪孽錄那麼長，慣於六時上牀就寢的老神父，還沒查問完畢就在椅子上睡着了。對霍·阿卡蒂奧第二來説，這樣的查問也是一種啟示，神父問他是否跟女人幹過壞事時，他並不覺得奇怪，他老實地回答説“沒有”；但是問他是否跟牲畜幹過壞事，他就感到大惑不解了。這孩子在五月裏的第一個星期五接受了聖餐，在好奇心的驅使下，就跑去找患病的教堂工友佩特羅里奧解釋；這人是住在鐘樓裏的，聽説他以蝙蝠充飢，佩特羅里奧回答他説：“有些浪蕩的基督徒是跟母驢幹這類事兒的。”霍·阿卡蒂奧第二的好奇心沒有得到滿足，他就繼續提出許多問題，使得佩特羅里奧終於失去了耐心。
“我自己是每個星期二晚上都要去的，”他坦白説，“如果你答應不告訴任何人，下星期二我就帶你去。”
果然，下星期二，佩特羅里奧拿着一隻小木凳，從鐘樓上下來了（在這以前，誰也不知道小木凳有這種用處），並且把霍阿卡蒂奧第二領到最近的一個畜欄，小夥子那樣喜歡這種夜襲，以致很長一段時間沒去卡塔林諾遊藝場。他成了一個飼養鬥雞的專家，“把這些雞拿到別處去吧，”他第一次把良種鬥雞帶到家裏的時候，烏蘇娜向他下了命令。“這些雞給咱們家的痛苦已經夠多了，不准你再把它們帶回來。”霍·阿卡蒂奧第二沒有爭辯就帶走了自己的鬥雞，但他繼續在祖母皮拉·苔列娜家裏飼養，祖母為了把孫子留在自己身邊，給了他一切方便。很快，他在鬥雞場上成功地運用了安東尼奧·伊薩貝爾神父救他的伎倆，撈到了不少錢，不僅夠他補充雞舍，而且可以滿足他享樂的需要。烏蘇娜拿霍·阿卡蒂奧第二跟他的兄弟相比，怎麼也弄不明白，兒童時代兩個一模一樣的孿生子竟會變成這樣不同的人。
她的困惑沒有延續多久，因為奧雷連諾第二很快地表現了懶惰和放蕩的傾向。當他關在梅爾加德斯房間裏的時候，他是個閉門深思的人，象奧雷連諾上校年輕時一樣。但在尼蘭德協定簽訂之前不久，一件偶然的事使他離開了僻靜的斗室，面對現實生活了。有一次，一個出售手風琴彩票的女人，突然十分親熱地招呼他。他並不覺得奇怪，因為人家經常把他錯看成他的兄弟，但是，她想用哭泣來使他心軟的時候，或者把他領進她的卧室的時候，他都沒有挑明她的錯誤。在這次邂逅之後，她拼命纏着他不放，甚至在彩票上弄了鬼，讓他在開彩時得到手風琴。過了兩個星期，奧雷連諾第二發現，這個女人輪流跟他和他的兄弟睡覺，把他們當成了一個人，但他並沒有講明關係，反而竭力隱瞞真情，讓這種情況延續下去。現在，他再也不回梅爾加德斯的房間，整天待在院子裏，學拉手風琴，把烏蘇娜的嘮叨當成耳邊風；當時由於喪事，烏蘇娜是禁止家中出現樂曲聲的，而且根本討厭手風琴，認為它是弗蘭西斯科人的後代——流浪樂師的樂器。然而，奧雷連諾第二終於成了個手風琴能手，即使有了妻子和孩子之後，他仍然愛拉手風琴，他是馬孔多最受尊敬的人物之一。