Chapter 14 Chapter Thirteen
In Úrsula's bewildered twilight years, when José Arcadio needed to be trained quickly for seminary, she had little time for him to be pope.Almost at the same time, amidst Fernanda's sternness and Amaranta's anguish, José Arcadio's sister, Meme, also reached the age at which she should be sent to a nun's school to train her as a clavichord The luthier.Úrsula was distressed because she doubted very much whether her method of training the will would work for the weary and slack disciples of the Pope.However, she did not attribute this to her own stumbling oldness, nor to the clouds and fog that made her barely see the outlines of things, but to something she herself could not describe clearly, but only dimly felt The constant erosion of light. "It's not like it used to be these days," she would say often, feeling that the daily tasks kept slipping away from her.She thought, children grew up very slowly in the past, and it only needs to be recalled to understand.Think how long it took her eldest son, José Arcadio, to grow up and go away with the gypsies, and come back home with thorns like snakes and talking like an astronomer. How much had happened before; think again, how much had happened at home before Amaranta and Arcadio had forgotten the Indian language and learned Spanish.Think also of the days of sun and night that poor José Arcadio Buendía endured under the chestnut tree.Since his death, Úrsula had cried for him?At last they sent home the dying Colonel Aureliano Buendía—how many years he had fought and how much people had suffered for him—but he was not yet fifty. age.Once upon a time, Ursula, after being a sugar beast all day, had time to worry about the children and see if the whites of their eyes needed a potion of castor oil for them.It was different now, when she had nothing else to do, she would go out walking with José Arcadio on her back, from morning to night, for a whole day, and the bad time would make her do everything without beginning and ending.In fact, although Úrsula could no longer remember her own age, she still refused to accept her age.She gets in the way everywhere, but she still wants to have a hand in everything.When she met strangers, she tired of asking them if they had left a plaster statue of St. Joseph in her house during the war, and let her keep it through the rainy season.No one knows exactly when she lost her eyesight.In her last years she was bedridden, but only looked old and feeble, and no one noticed that she was totally blind.She had discovered that she was blind before José Arcadio was born.At first, she thought it was a temporary loss of vision, so she secretly took bone marrow syrup and dripped honey for her eyes.Before long, however, she became so convinced that she was so irretrievably plunged into darkness that she never had a clear idea of the invention of the electric light, for when the first electric lights were installed she could only perceive light.She never told anyone about this situation, because it would be tantamount to letting others know her uselessness.She silently remembers the distances between things and recognizes people's voices.In this way, she can continue to "see" everything from memory when the whites of her eyes prevent her from seeing.Later, she discovered an unexpected auxiliary magic method, which is smell.Distinguishing smells in the dark is more believable than distinguishing the size and color of objects.This saved her once and for all from the shame of being left alone.In a dark room, she can thread a needle and thread a button and lock a hole, and she can also tell when the milk is about to boil. She is so clear about where everything is that sometimes she even forgets that she is blind.Once, when Fernanda lost her wedding ring and caused a great uproar in the house, Úrsula found it on a ledge in the children's room.Because it is very simple, when others are running around without paying attention, she always pays attention to them with her four senses, and does not let them suddenly touch her.After a period of time, she found that every member of the family was unconsciously repeating the same schedule, the same actions every day, and even said almost the same words at the same moment.Whenever they accidentally strayed from this prudent routine, they were in danger of losing things.So, when she heard that Fernanda was upset about losing her ring, Úrsula remembered that the only thing Fernanda did differently that day was to dry the mats on which the children slept because Meme A bedbug was found.The children had been cleaning that day, so Úrsula thought that Fernanda had put the ring in the only place where the children could not reach it: on the ledge.However, Fernanda just searched according to the route of daily activities, but she didn't know that this daily habit of action hindered her, and that's why it was so hard to find things.
The upbringing of José Arcadio did Úrsula a great favor, allowing her to keep track of every little change that had taken place in the family.When she found out that Amaranta was dressing the icon in the house, she pretended to teach the child to recognize colors.
"Well, let's see," she said, "tell me, what color is the angel of Saint Raphael wearing?"
Thus the child told her much that her eyes could not see.Long before José Arcadio went to the seminary, Úrsula was able to distinguish the various colors of the icon's clothing by the texture of the cloth.Sometimes accidents happened. One afternoon, Amaranta was embroidering in the corridor of begonias when Úrsula bumped into her as she passed by.
"Oh, my God!" complained Amaranta, "you don't even look where you're going!"
"You yourself are sitting where you shouldn't be!" said Úrsula.
For Amaranta this was true.But since that day, Úrsula has discovered a fact that no one has noticed, that is, the sun also changes its position unconsciously throughout the year, and the people sitting in the promenade have to point and click. Follow the point to change the position.
From then on, Úrsula knew exactly where Amaranta was sitting by memorizing the date.Although Úrsula's trembling hands became more and more obvious and her legs were too heavy to move, she had never seen her slender figure appear in so many places at the same time as now.She is almost as industrious as she was when she was carrying the burden of the family.And yet, in the impenetrable solitude of old age, she was keen enough to see even the smallest things going on in the family.This insight gave her, for the first time, a clear view of truths that she had been unable to see in the past due to her haste.During the period when José Arcadio was being trained to attend the seminary, she had reviewed the family history from the birth of Macondo in an extremely brief manner, and completely changed her usual view of her descendants.She understood that Colonel Aureliano Buendía lost his love for his family not because of the cruelty of war as she had thought at first, but because he had never loved anyone, including his wife Remete Ruth and the countless women he had slept with throughout his life, not to mention his children.She vaguely discovered that he didn't fight north and south for a certain ideal as everyone always thought, nor did he give up the victory that was easy to win because of fatigue, as everyone thought, whether he won the battle or lost the battle Well, he did it all for the same reason, purely out of sinful pride.She finally came to the conclusion that the son for whom she nearly lost her life was just a man incapable of love.It was one night when the child was still in the womb, she heard the cry of the child.The cry was so clear that even José Arcadio Buendía, who was sleeping next to her, woke up.He was very happy and thought that the kid would be a ventriloquist in the future.Others predicted that the child would become a fortune teller.She herself, however, was convinced that the deep cry must be the first sign of that dreadful pig's tail, and trembling all over, she begged God to let the fetus die in her womb.However, the reason of old age made her understand that the cry of a child in the mother's womb is not a symbol of being a ventriloquist or a sign of divination ability, but the most obvious signal of incapacity for love. I have said this for the first time.She belittled the image of her son in this way, and suddenly aroused all the sympathy she should have for him.Amaranta's hard heart had frightened her, her deep sorrow had made her miserable, but in a recent observation Úrsula found that Amaranta was the most tender woman she had ever seen.She understood with regret that all the unreasonable tortures that Amaranta inflicted on Pietro Crespi were not motivated by revenge, as everyone thought; The slow torment of Colonel Márquez's lifelong disappointment was not, as it was supposed, due to her bitterness.All this was a life-and-death struggle between her intense love and her invincible cowardice, culminated in the absurd fear that always prevailed in Amaranta over her own. A tormented heart.It was at this time that Úrsula began to mention Rebeca's name.
A belated repentance and sudden admiration revived old affections, and she thought of Rebeca.She already understood that she was alone, Rebeca, who had never been fed her milk but only the earth on the ground and the lime on the walls; that her blood flowed not in her veins, but that of a stranger. People of strange blood—the bones of these strangers still creaked in the tomb; only Rebeca, a woman with a restless heart and sensuality, was the only one with such infinite courage that Úrsula had hoped that her Families also have this courage.
"Rebeca," she said, touching the wall, "we have treated you so unfairly!"
The family obviously thought she was talking nonsense, especially since she walked with her right arm raised like the angel Gabriel, she was delirious.But Fernanda knew that in the shadow of her nonsense there was a shrewd and sober sun, because Úrsula was able to tell without hesitation how much the family had spent in the previous year.Amaranta felt the same way.
One day my mother was in the kitchen stirring the pot when she suddenly started talking about buying corn mills from the first gypsies.She didn't know that someone was listening to her.She said that the mill had been lost long before José Arcadio made sixty-five rounds of the world, and that it was still in Pilar Ternera's house.At that time, Pilar Ternera was also a centenarian.Despite her unimaginably fat body, she was nimble and strong.Her fat appearance often scared the children away, just as her laughter used to scare the pigeons away.She was not surprised by what Ursula said, because her experience told her that the vigilance of the elderly is more accurate than card divination.
But when Úrsula realized that she did not have enough time to develop José Arcadio's talents, she fell into a trance with frustration.She wanted to see with her eyes what she could see more clearly intuitively, and that was where her mistakes began.One morning, she poured the contents of an ink bottle over the child's head, thinking it was toilet water.Her obstinate desire to meddle here and there caused a lot of trouble, and as a result she lost her temper and lost her mind.She wanted to get rid of the darkness around her, but the darkness entangled her like a spider web.Just then she discovered that her slowness of action was not the first triumph of old age and darkness, but a fault of time.God, she thought, hadn't played tricks in setting the years the way the Turk measured a yard of muslin, so it wasn't the same then as it is now.Now, not only are the children growing faster, but their emotional evolution has also changed.As soon as the body and soul of Remedios the Beauty ascended into the sky, Fernanda, who was neglected, murmured in the corner of the room because the bedsheets had been taken away by the Beauty.The bones of Brother Aureliano were still buried in the tomb, but Aureliano Segundo's house was already brightly lit and full of drunkards.They played the accordion and poured champagne at each other, as if it wasn't Christians who died in the family but dogs; Like a decaying dumpster.Úrsula thought about these things as they prepared José Arcadio's suitcase.She wondered if she might as well lie in the tomb and let it be covered with sand.Without fear, she asked God if He really thought that the human body was made of iron to endure so much pain and suffering.As she asked, she also became confused.She felt an irresistible desire to yell and curse like a stranger, and really wanted to indulge herself for a moment to fight.How many times she had longed for this moment, how many times she had postponed it because of resignation for various reasons, and she wanted to pour out at once the countless obscenities that had been suppressed in her heart for a whole century. come out.
"Damn it!" she exclaimed.
Amaranta was about to stuff the clothes into the box when she thought her mother had been stung by a scorpion.
"Where is it?" asked Amaranta in surprise.
"what?"
"Scorpions!" Amaranta explained.
Úrsula pointed to her heart with one finger.
"Here," she said.
At two o'clock in the afternoon on a Thursday, José Arcadio went to the seminary.When Úrsula recalled him later, she always remembered him as she had imagined him when he saw him off: sad, serious, without shedding a tear, just as she had taught him to do.It was stuffy and hot in a green velveteen robe with brass buttons, and a starched cravat tied around his neck.The dining room was filled with the strong scent of toilet water that Úrsula had sprinkled on José Arcadio's head so that he could know where he was at home.At the farewell lunch in his honor, the whole family masked their uneasiness with cheerful words and applauded Father Antonio Isabel's wisecracks with overzealous enthusiasm.But when the velvet case with the silver corners was carried out, it was as if a coffin had been carried out of the house.The only one who refused to take part in the send-off was Colonel Aureliano Buendía.
"That annoying thing is all we need in our house," grumbled the colonel. "Here's a Pope!"
Three months later, Aureliano Segundo and Fernanda sent Meme to a nun's school, and when they returned home they brought back a clavichord, which stood where the player piano had been.It was about this time that Amaranta began weaving her shroud.The banana fever has subsided, and the old residents of Macondo have been pushed into corners by out-of-towners, struggling to survive on the precarious resources of the past, but they are still grateful for the survival after the disaster.The family still hosted guests for lunch, but in fact it didn't return to its former grandeur until the Banana Company left many years later.Still, there was a fundamental change in the traditional sense of hospitality, since it was Fernanda who was then enforcing her laws.Now that Úrsula had been left behind in the world of darkness, and Amaranta was concentrating on weaving her shroud, the former queen was free to choose her diners and imbue her with what her parents had instilled in her. All sorts of strict rules apply to them.In Macondo, a town convulsed by the vulgarity of strangers who squandered their easy fortunes, her severity turned the home into a bastion of convention.To her, without beating the bush, the honest people were the ones who had nothing to do with the banana company.Even her brother-in-law, José Arcadio Segundo, fell victim to her discriminatory policies, since during the earlier hilarity he auctioned off tough gamecocks and worked as a foreman at the banana company.
"If you have the mange of a stranger," said Fernanda, "you should never set foot in this house again."
The constraints imposed on the house were so severe that Aureliano Segundo finally felt much more comfortable in Petra Cotes' house.At the beginning, he moved a lot of sundries away under the pretext of lightening his wife's burden.Later, on the pretext that the animals could not bear cubs, they moved all the stables.
In the end, on the pretext that his mistress' house was cooler, he also moved out the small office where he handled affairs.
By the time Fernanda found out that she had become a widow with a living husband, it was too late to restore things to the way they had been.Aureliano Segundo was hardly even at home for meals and the only illusion he maintained was that he was sleeping with his wife.
One night, due to negligence, Fernanda was found in Petra Cote's bed the next morning.Contrary to what he had imagined, Fernanda neither scolded him nor sighed the slightest bit of resentment. On this day, she had his two large boxes of farm clothes delivered to his mistress' house.The box was delivered in broad daylight, and Fernanda also ordered that she must walk in the middle of the road so that everyone could see it. She thought that her cheating husband would return to the right path with his head bowed in shame. .But Fernanda's heroic feat only proved once again that she neither understood her husband's character nor knew that this kind of society has nothing to do with the society of her parents' time, because everything she saw sent to those two boxes Everyone in the clothes said that this was the natural end of a history that no one knew about, and Aureliano Segundo celebrated for three days the freedom he had won.Even more detrimental to the wife was the fact that when she was beginning to age with an irreverent arrogance in a dark dress that reached to the heels and an anachronistic decoration, the mistress wore a splendid dress. Dressed in silk fashion, her two shiny black eyes shone with the joy of taking back her own rights, as if she had begun her second youth.Aureliano Segundo fell in love with Petra Cotes again with the passion of his youth.At that time, Petra Cotter did not love him because he liked him, but because she often confused him with his twin brother.She slept with both of them at the same time, thinking that it was a blessing from God that she had a man whose love was better than two people.The renewed lust was so urgent that more than once they had looked at each other while they were getting ready to eat, and then, without saying a word, covered the dishes and went to the bedroom hungry to have sex.Aureliano Segundo, inspired by the decorations he saw when he sneaked up to the French girl, bought Petra Cote a large bed with a canopy like a cathedral, and hung it in the window. There were velvet curtains, and large mirrors of rock-like glass were set on the ceiling and walls of the bedroom.This made him look extra frivolous.Every morning when the train arrived at eleven o'clock, he always received boxes of champagne and brandy.On the way home from the station, he always pulls everyone he meets along the way, whether they are local or foreign, familiar or unfamiliar, like an impromptu kumbiamba dance to his home .Even Mr. Brown, the elusive foreign tongue, was attracted by Aureliano Segundo's seductive gestures, and several times he got drunk at Petra Cotes' house and told those few words to follow him everywhere. His German mastiff danced to a Texas song he sang off to accordion beats.
"Don't give birth, cow," cried Aureliano Segundo at the height of the party, "don't give birth, life is short."
His complexion had never been so good, and he couldn't think of better, and his animals had never been so endlessly littered.During the endless parties, how many cows and pigs were slaughtered, how many chickens were slaughtered, and even the soil in the yard was turned into a black quagmire by blood.It has become a garbage dump and a slop tank where bones and internal organs are discarded and leftovers are dumped for many years. It is necessary to ignite the explosives from time to time to prevent the vultures from pecking out the eyes of the guests.Aureliano Segundo had the same appetite as José Arcadio when he returned from his world tour.
He was fat, purple-faced, and slow as a tortoise.His reputation for his unbridled appetite, unparalleled profligacy, and unrivaled hospitality has spread beyond the marshes, attracting the most renowned gluttons of the coast.Fabulous gluttons came from far and wide to take part in this irrational contest of stamina and appetite that was often held at Petra Kot's house.Until that ill-fated Saturday when Camila Sagasdume came along, Aureliano Segundo had always been a regular in this type of competition.Camila Sagasdume is a nationally known totem-like woman, and people gave her the appropriate name "Mother Elephant".The game continued until dawn on Tuesday.During the first twenty-four hours Aureliano Segundo felt triumphant after devouring a calf and a lot of roasted cassava, roasted yams and bananas, together with a case and a half of champagne.He appeared more vigorous and lively than his calm opponent.The antagonist's manner of dining was decidedly professional, but because of that, her demeanor was less exciting to a packed house of assorted spectators.Aureliano Segundo wolfed down his cheeks again and again, and because he was eager to win, he kept swearing, while the "female elephant" was cutting up pieces of meat with the skill of a surgeon, eating in a leisurely manner. , even with some kind of pleasure.It was a tall and strong woman, but despite her bulk, she still showed feminine tenderness.Her face was so beautiful, her hands so delicately maintained, and her charm so irresistible that Aureliano Segundo murmured when he saw her enter that he would rather be in bed with her. It's not about competing at the table.Later, when he saw her eat a whole leg of beef without violating the most genteel rules, he remarked gravely that that delicate, charming, insatiable proboscis was, in a sense, An ideal woman.He was not mistaken about this.She had been called "Osprey" before she was called "Mama Elephant," and that was without reason.She was not a cow-crushing machine, nor was she a bearded woman in a Greek circus, as people said.She is the conductor of the singing academy.She learned the art of eating after she became a respected mother in the family.She had begun to learn the art of eating in search of a way of better nourishing her child, a way of eating without artificially stimulating the appetite, but with absolute peace of mind.Her theory, which has been proven in practice, is based on the principle that if a person has all the problems in his heart satisfactorily resolved, he can eat until he is exhausted.Therefore, it was purely for moral reasons rather than sports interests that she left her singing academy and family behind to compete against a man who had a reputation all over the country as an unprincipled big eater.From the first time she saw him, she realized that Aureliano Segundo would not lose because of a bad appetite, but because of a bad temper.When the first night of the competition was coming to an end, the "Mama Elephant" was still so nonchalant, and Aureliano Segundo was already tired from talking and laughing too much.They slept for four hours.
After waking up, each drank the sweet juice of fifty oranges, eight liters of coffee, and ate thirty raw eggs.By the second dawn of the game, they hadn't slept through the night.After eating two pigs, a bunch of bananas and four cases of champagne, the matriarch guessed that Aureliano Segundo had unknowingly discovered the same method as hers, but in a way that was completely reckless and ridiculous.By then his situation was already more dangerous than she had imagined.When Petra Cote brought the two roast turkeys to the table, Aureliano Segundo was just one step away from breaking his stomach.
"If you can't do it, don't eat any more," said "Mother Elephant." "Our game is a dead end."
This is entirely from her heart.Because she knew that she couldn't take another bite, and she didn't want to feel guilty for causing the death of her opponent.But Aureliano Segundo took her words as a new challenge and swallowed the turkey, clearly beyond his incredible abilities.He passed out, threw himself on the plate containing the remains of bones, foamed like a dog, and made a hoarse sound of dying.
He felt, in the darkness, being thrown from the top of a tower into the bottomless abyss.In his last flashes of lucidity he knew that death awaited him at the end of the endless fall.
"Xia sent me to Fernanda." He reluctantly said.
His friends who carried him home believed that he had fulfilled his promise to his wife not to die in her mistress's bed.When someone went to tell Petra Cote that Aureliano Segundo was out of danger, she had already polished the patent leather boots that Aureliano Segundo wanted to wear in the coffin and was looking for someone to put them away. Send it to him.He was actually back to health in less than a week, and fifteen days later he celebrated his escape with a party of unprecedented proportions.He still lives at Petra Kote's house, but visits Fernanda every day and sometimes stays at home to eat, as if fate has reversed the positions of things and made him the husband of his mistress and the lover of his wife .
This was a real relief to Fernanda.In the boredom of her deserted side, her only diversions were playing the clavichord during her siesta, and reading the letters from her children.Every fifteen days she wrote a detailed letter to the children, none of which was true.She always hid her pain from her children, and she always avoided talking about the sad things at home.The home, despite the sunshine on the begonias, despite the suffocating heat at two o'clock in the afternoon, despite the constant noise of parties from the street, was becoming more and more like her parents' colonial compound.Fernanda wanders alone between three living ghosts and a ghost of the dead José Arcadio Buendía.The ghost of the dead often came and sat in the dark corner of the hall while she was playing the clavichord, watching her questioningly.Colonel Aureliano Buendía was a shadow.Since the last time he took to the streets to encourage Colonel Gerineldo Márquez to plan a hopeless war, he had been in his workshop and rarely even relieved himself under the chestnut tree.He received no one but the master who came to cut his hair every three weeks.Ursula brought him meals once a day, and he ate whatever was brought to him.Although he is still making small goldfishes as enthusiastically as before, he no longer sells them, because he has learned that people do not buy his small goldfishes as treasures, but as a historical relic.He piled Remedios' dolls in the yard and set them on fire.The dolls have been a decoration in his room since the day he got married.The alert Ursula noticed what her son was doing, but was unable to stop it.
"You have a heart of stone!" she said to him.
"It's not a question of innocence," he replied, "the room will be full of moths."
Amaranta weaves her shroud.Fernanda did not understand why she sometimes wrote to Meme and even sent her gifts, but she did not mention José Arcadio.When Fernanda asked her why through Úrsula, Amaranta replied: "They will all die without knowing why." Doubt.Tall, slender, haughty, and always wearing several layers of seersucker petticoats, Amaranta exuded a distinctive air that had stood the test of time and many unfortunate memories, as on the forehead Printed with the Holy Ash Cross, which means chastity.In fact, her Holy Cross is on her hand, on that black bandage.She never took off the bandage when she slept, and she always washed and ironed it herself.Her life was spent in embroidered shrouds.It is said that she embroiders during the day and removes them at night.She didn't want to break the loneliness in this way, on the contrary, she wanted to keep it in this way.
During the days when Fernanda was left alone, her greatest fear was that Meme would not see Aureliano Segundo's people at home when she came home for her first vacation.Because of the incident of being so full that she was almost stuffed to death, her worries were finally over.When Meme came home, her parents had agreed not only to convince their daughter that Aureliano Segundo was still a good family husband, but also to keep her daughter from seeing the sad events in the family.For two months every year, Aureliano Segundo played the role of a model husband.He used to give little dances with ice cream and biscuits, and the cheerful, lively daughter would always play a little clavichord to add to the cheerful atmosphere.It was evident from that time that she had inherited very little of her mother's character and was exactly the same as Amaranta had been when she was twelve or thirteen.At that time, Amaranta never knew what it meant to be depressed, and her dance moves often made the whole family laugh.And that was before her secret love affair with Pietro Crespi changed her inner yearning forever.
But, unlike Amaranta, unlike everyone else, Meme had not yet manifested the solitary fate of the family.She seemed content with the world around her, even when she was shut up in her room at two o'clock every afternoon, under strict discipline, practicing the clavichord.It can be seen at a glance that Meimei likes this family.She longed all year round to make the young people jubilant with her coming home.It was not far from her father's hilarious, over-hospitable temperament.The first signs of this catastrophic inheritance came when she returned home for the holidays for the third time.That time Meimei brought home four miserable girls and sixty-eight female classmates, and invited them to stay at home for a week.She invited her here on her own initiative, without saying hello in advance.
"Damn it!" complained Fernanda, "the child is as wild as her father."
They had to borrow many plank beds and hammocks from neighbors.They were also asked to eat meals in nine batches, and set a time for bathing.In order to keep these girls in blue school uniforms and men's boots from running around all day, forty small benches were specially borrowed for them to sit on.The invitation was a mess, because the rowdy schoolgirls had just taken turns eating breakfast, and then they were going to take turns eating lunch, and then dinner.During the whole week, they went to the banana plantation only once to play.By evening, the nuns were too exhausted to move and could no longer preach, while the tireless gang of young girls sang the monotonous school song in the courtyard.One day they were going to crush Úrsula flat because she was an old man who wanted to show herself in the busiest of places.Another day the nuns suddenly cried out because Colonel Aureliano Buendía had the audacity to urinate under the chestnut tree despite the fact that there were so many schoolgirls in the courtyard.Amaranta almost freaked everyone out because when she was adding salt to the soup pot, a nun broke into the kitchen and the only thing the nun could think of asking was to ask her what the handful of white powder she put in it was. thing.
"Arsenic," said Amaranta.
The night they arrived, the schoolgirls all tried to use the toilet before going to bed, and the result was chaos until one o'clock in the morning, when the last batch of girls had just had their turn to go in.
So Fernanda bought seventy-two bedpans, but all that did was turn an evening problem into a morning problem.Because from daybreak, the girls in front of the toilet have formed a long queue, each holding a potty in their hands, waiting to go in and clean.Although a few students developed a high fever and a few others developed inflammation from mosquito bites, most of them showed an indomitable will to face hardships and hardships.Even in the hottest time, they are still chasing and playing in the yard.When they finally left, the plants were broken, the furniture was broken, and the walls were covered with pictures and words, but Fernanda forgave them for the damage, because she mourned their departure. Take a breath.She returned the borrowed beds and square stools one by one, and hid seventy-two bedpans in Melquíades' room.From then on, this closed room, which used to be the center of the spiritual life of the family, got a new name: "the bedpan room".For Colonel Aureliano Buendía, the name was the most appropriate, because he saw it when his family marveled at the spotless condition of Melquiades' room. The room had been turned into a dumpster.不管怎么说，在他看来究竟谁有道理都无所谓，他所以会知道这个房间的新用途，那是因为菲南达在那里出出进进藏便盆，忙了整整一个下午，影响了他的工作。
就在这几天里，霍塞·阿卡迪奥第二又在家里出现了。他径直穿过走廊，同谁也不打招呼，把自己关在工作间里同上校交谈。尽管乌苏拉已经不能看到他的模样，可她能辨别出他那双工头穿的皮靴的鞋跟碰撞地面的声响。她惊奇地发现他与家庭之间，甚至与童年时代一起玩过天真的换名游戏的孪生兄弟之间都有着不可逾越的鸿沟，两人已经毫无共同之处。霍塞·阿卡迪奥第二身材瘦长，举止庄重，矜持沉思，有着撒拉逊人的愁郁的气质。他最象他的母亲圣塔索菲娅·德·拉·佩达了。乌苏拉抱怨自己在谈到家中事情时，总是把他忘了。但是，当她感到他又出现在家里，还发觉上校居然在工作时间里允许他进房间时，她便重新搜索起自己陈旧的回忆。她断定，准是在童年的某个时候，他跟他的孪生兄弟调换过名字了。因为是他而不是他的兄弟应该叫奥雷良诺。谁也不了解他的生活细节，只知道有个时期他连个固定的住处也没有。他在庇拉·特内拉家里饲养斗鸡，有时就在那里睡觉，但几乎总是在法国女郎的房间里过夜的。他象是乌苏拉行星体系中一颗游移的星，没有情感也没有雄心地四处飘荡。
实际上，自从很久以前的一个早晨，赫里奈多·马尔克斯上校把霍塞，阿卡迪奥第二带到司令部去以后，他就不再是这个家庭的成员，也不会是任何其他家庭的成员了。那次带他去司令部并不是为了让他看一次枪决，而是为了让他在后半辈子里永远不要忘记被枪决者的那种凄惨而略带讥讽的微笑。这不仅是他最早的记忆，而且也是他孩提时代的唯一记忆。另一件往事是，他记起有一位身穿不合时宜的背心，头戴鸦翼帽的老人，曾面对着耀眼的窗子叙述种种奇观，但他记不清这是什么时期发生的事。这一种模模糊糊的记忆，既无教益也无留恋可言。它跟对被枪决者的回忆大相径庭，因为后者实际上确定了他一生的方向，而旦随着他日益衰老，这件往事越来越清晰地返回他的记忆，好象时间的消逝使他与这件往事越来越接近了。乌苏拉曾想通过霍塞·阿卡迪奥第二劝告奥雷良诺·布恩地亚上校结束这种闭门自锁的状态。“你应该劝他去电影院跑跑，”她对他说，“即使他不喜欢看电影，也至少可以有个透透新鲜空气的机会呀。”可是不久她就发现，他也象上校一样对她的苦求始终无动于衷，他们俩都披着一层密不透风的护甲，对亲切的情感毫无反应。尽管她从来不知道，也没有任何人知道他俩关在工作间那段漫长的时间里究竟谈了些什么。可她明白，他俩是家里唯一由亲缘关系联结在一起的人。
其实即使霍塞·阿卡迪奥第二也无法使上校跨出与世隔绝的门坎。女学生们的侵入实在超出了上校的忍耐限度。他借口说结婚的那间房里虽然烧毁了雷梅苔丝那些成了蛀虫美餐的玩具娃娃，蛀虫却还在泛滥，于是在工作间里架起了吊床，这样他除了大小便要到院子去外更是足不出户了。乌苏拉没能同他草草谈上几句话。她知道，在小金鱼做完之前，他是不会瞥一眼饭菜的，而总是把饭菜推到桌子的一端，也不管菜汤表面是否结了硬皮，肉碗是否已经冰凉。自从赫里奈多·马尔克斯上校拒绝支持他在垂暮之年再发动一场战争以来，他变得越来越生硬了。他给自己的内心也上了门闩，最后家里人想起他时，仿佛把他看作已经死了似的。在十月十一日他走出沿街的大门去观看马戏团的队伍之前，人们没有看到过他作为一个活人的任何反应。对奥雷良诺·布恩地亚上校来说，这一天同他最后几年中的任何一天都一样。清晨五点钟，围墙外蛤蟆和蟋蟀的喧闹把他惊醒了。星期六以来就下着连绵细雨，没有必要再听那花园里树叶上淅淅沥沥的雨声了，因为不管怎么说，从他冰冷的肌骨里早已感觉到了这种声音。他象往常一样裹着羊毛毯，穿着那条长长的原棉衬裤。尽管这条裤子由于尘垢累累已成了老古董，连他自己也把它叫作“哥特式衬裤”，可他图它舒服还是一直穿在身上。他套上一条瘦腿的长裤，但没有扣上钮子，也没有在衬衫领上别起那颗常用的金钮扣，因为他准备去洗澡。后来他把毡子往头上一兜，象戴了顶尖顶高帽，又用手指理了理污腻的胡须，到院子解手去了。那时，离天气放晴出太阳还有许多时日，霍塞·阿卡迪奥·布恩地亚还在被连绵阴雨浸得朽腐了的棕榈叶凉棚下打着盹。上校没有看见他，因为他从未见过父亲在凉棚下的情景。当热乎乎的小便溅到父亲鞋子上时，他也没有听见父亲的幽灵被惊醒时对他讲的那番令人费解的话。他把洗澡的事推后了，并不是因为天气寒冷或潮湿，而是因为十月间的大雾使人气闷。回到工作间，他闻到一股圣塔索菲娅·德·拉·佩达点燃炉芯的气味，便到厨房去等着咖啡煮开，以便盛一碗不放糖的咖啡带走。圣塔索菲娅·德·拉·佩达象每天早晨那样问他是星期几？他回答说是十月十一日星期二。望着这个被火光映成金黄色的冷漠的女人一一这个女人无论现在还是过去任何时刻对他来说都象是完全不存在的——，他突然想起，在战争进行得正激烈的某个十月十一日，蓦然产生一种确凿无疑的念头，即刚同他睡过觉的那个女人死了的想法把他惊醒了。她确实死了，他没有忘掉日期，因为就是这个女人在死前一小时还问过他星期几。尽管他想起了这些往事，但这一次仍然不清楚他的这些预感在多大程度上已经不灵验了。他一边煮咖啡，一边继续想着那女人。这纯粹是出于好奇，丝毫没有陷入怀旧的危险。他从来不知道那女人姓甚名谁，也没有见过她生时的模样，因为她是摸着黑，跌跌撞撞地来到吊床边的。但是在以同样方式闯入他生活中来的那么多女人之中，他不记得是否就是这个女人，在他们初交的狂热中，哭得差点儿淹死在她自己的泪水里，而且在死前不到一小时，还信誓旦旦地向他表示过至死不渝的爱情。他端着热气腾腾的咖啡回到工作间后，就不再想念她或任何其他女人了。他开了灯，数了数放在洋铁罐头里的小金鱼。已经有十七条了。自从他决定不再出售这些小鱼以后，他仍然每天做两条，等到积满了二十五条时，就把它们熔化在坩埚里，重新再做。他全神贯注地做了整整一个上午，什么也没想，也没有发觉上午十点钟雨就下大了，有人从工作间门口走过，叫喊着把门关起来，以免房间进水。直到乌苏拉拿着午饭进来，并关掉电灯之前，他甚至没意识到自己的存在。
“好大的雨啊！”乌苏拉说。
“十月了嘛。”仡说。
他讲这些话时，眼睛并没有离开当天做的第一条小鱼，因为他正在给鱼嵌上红宝石眼睛，直到完工，并把它跟别的小鱼一起放进罐头后，他才开始喝菜汤。然后，他慢慢悠悠地吃起盛在一个盘子里的洋葱烩肉块、白米饭和油煎香蕉来了。他的胃口无论是在最好还是最糟的情况下都没有什么变化。吃罢午饭，他又觉得闲得慌。由于他有一种科学的迷信，饭后不经过两个小时的消化他是从来不干活、不看书、不洗澡、也不行房事的。这种信念是如此根深蒂固，当年他曾好几次推迟战争行动，以免部队面临积食的危险。所以，他往吊床上一躺，一边用小刀掏着耳垢，几分钟以后，他就睡着了。他梦见自己走进了一个空荡荡的房间，四周都是白色的墙壁。一种自己是进入这个房间的第一个人的沉重感觉使他感到不安。睡梦中他又想起，在头一天的晚上，在最后几年中的许多夜晚，他都做过同样的梦。他知道醒来时这个梦境就会在脑海中？肖失，因为那个重复出现的梦境有一个特点，即只能在同样的梦中才能回忆起来。果然，一会儿工夫，当理发师来敲工作间的门，奥雷良诺·布恩地亚上校醒来时，只觉得自己仅仅不知不觉地打了短短几秒钟盹，还没有来得及做任何梦。
“今天不理了，”他对理发师说，“咱们星期五见。”
他的胡子已经三天没有刮了，上面斑斑点点地沾着细茸茸的白毛，但他并不认为有刮的必要，因为星期五理发时可以一起解决。在令人不适的午睡时，那粘糊糊的汗液使胳肢窝里的腋疮又隐隐作痛。
雨已经停了，但太阳还没有出来。嘴巴里酸溜溜的菜汤味使奥雷良诺·布恩地亚上校打了一个响嗝，仿佛他听到了器官的指令，兜起毯子上厕所去了。他在厕所里呆了很长一段时间，蹲在木头箱子里冒出的浓重的臭气上，直到习惯告诉他已到重新开始工作的时候为止。
在这段等待的时间中，他又记起今天是星期二，因为这个日子香蕉公司种植园里发工薪，霍塞·阿卡迪奥第二没有来工作间。他的这种回忆就象这些年里的其它所有回忆一样，都使他不由自主地想起战争来。他想起赫里奈多·马尔克斯上校曾答应给他搞一匹额头有白斑的战马，但后来却再没有提起。接着他的思绪又辖到了其它零散的往事，对于这些往事，他只是不加鉴别地想想而已。由于不可能想别的事情，他已经学会了冷静地进行思考，免得那些无法避免的回忆刺痛了自己的心。回到工作间以后，看看空气开始收燥了，他认为这是洗澡的好时间，可是阿玛兰塔已经先他而去了。于是，他就开始做这一天的第二条小鱼。当他正在镶嵌金鱼尾巴的时候，太阳喷薄而出，强烈的光照竞象单桅小船那样吱嘎作响。被三天连绵细雨洗净了的空气中满是飞蚁。这时他觉得自己想小便了，但想等做完这条小鱼后再去。四点十分，他正要去院子时，忽然听到远处鼓乐齐鸣，儿童们欢呼雀跃。从他青年时期起，他还是第一次有意识地踏进了怀念的陷阱，他想起了吉卜赛人来的那个神奇的下午，他父亲带他去认识冰块的情景。圣塔索菲娅·德·拉·佩达搁下她正在厨房里的活儿，朝门口跑去。
“马戏团来啦。”她叫了起来。
奥雷良诺·布恩地亚上校没有到栗树下去，他也走到了沿街的大门口，挤进了观看马戏团队伍的好奇的人群里。他看到一位穿着金色衣服的女人坐在一头大象的后颈上。看到一头悒郁的单峰骆驼。
他看到一只熊穿着荷兰女人的衣服，用大铁勺和平底锅打着拍子，还看到一些小丑在游行队伍的最后走着钢丝。等到队伍走完以后，又看到他那可怜的孤独的脸庞。大街上只剩下那明亮的空间，空气中满是飞蚁，另有几个好奇者还在心神不定地翘首观望。于是，他一边想着马戏团，一边向栗树走去。小便时他还试图继续想马戏团的事，却已经记不起来了。他象一只小鸡似地把头缩进脖子里，前额往栗树干上一靠，就一动不动了。家里人直到第二天上午十一点才发觉，那是圣塔索菲娅·德·拉·佩达到后院去倒垃圾，才注意到兀鹫正在一只只飞下来。
Notes:
Notes: