世紀文學經典:《百年孤獨》第18章Part7
Almost a year after his return home, having sold the silver candlesticks and the heraldic chamberpot—which at the moment of truth turned out to have only a little gold plating on the crest—in order to eat, the only distraction of Jos?Arcadio was to pick up children in town so that they could play in the house. He would appear with them at siesta time and have them skip rope in the garden, sing on the porch, and do acrobatics on the furniture in the living room while he would go among the groups giving lessons in good manners. At that time he had finished with the tight pants and the silk shirts and was wearing an ordinary suit of clothing that he had bought in the Arab stores, but he still maintained his languid dignity and his papal air. The children took over the house just as Meme’s schoolmates had done in the past. Until well into the night they could be heard chattering and singing and tap-dancing, so that the house resembled a boarding school where there was no discipline. Aureliano did not worry about the invasion as long as they did not bother him in Melquíades?room. One morning two children pushed open the door and were startled at the sight of a filthy and hairy man who was still deciphering the parchments on the worktable. They did not dare go in, but they kept on watching the room. They would peep in through the cracks, whispering, they threw live animals in through the transom, and on one occasion they nailed up the door and the window and it took Aureliano half a day to force them open. Amused at their unpunished mischief, four of the children went into the room one morning while Aureliano was in the kitchen, preparing to destroy the parchments. But as soon as they laid hands on the yellowed sheets an angelic force lifted them off the ground and held them suspended in the air until Aureliano returned and took the parchments away from them. From then on they did not bother him.
The four oldest children, who wore short pants in spite of the fact that they were on the threshold of adolescence, busied themselves with Jos?Arcadio’s personal appearance. They would arrive earlier than the others and spend the morning shaving him, giving him massages with hot towels, cutting and polishing the nails on his hands and feet, and perfuming him with toilet water. On several occasions they would get into the pool to soap him from head to toe as he floated on his back thinking about Amaranta. Then they would dry him, powder his body, and dress him. One of the children, who had curly blond hair and eyes of pink glass like a rabbit, was accustomed to sleeping in the house. The bonds that linked him to Jos?Arcadio were so strong that he would accompany him in his asthmatic insomnia, without speaking, strolling through the house with him in the darkness. One night in the room where ?rsula had slept they saw a yellow glow coming through the crumbling cement as if an underground sun had changed the floor of the room into a pane of glass. They did not have to turn on the light. It was sufficient to lift the broken slabs in the corner where ?rsula’s bed had always stood and where the glow was most intense to find the secret crypt that Aureliano Segundo had worn himself out searching for during the delirium of his excavations. There were the three canvas sacks closed with copper wire, and inside of them the seven thousand two hundred fourteen pieces of eight, which continued glowing like embers in the darkness.
霍·阿卡蒂奧回到父母家裏差不多隻過了一年，就變賣了銀製的枝形燭臺和一隻裝飾着徽記的便盆——老實說，這便盆上只有徽記纔是金的，——他唯一的消遣就是在房子裏集合起一些野男孩，並給他們充分的自由，在最熱的晌午時刻，他讓他們在花園裏跳繩，在長廊上大聲唱歌，在安樂椅和沙發上翻筋斗，他自己卻在這一夥跟那一夥之間轉來轉去，教他們各種禮節。這時，他已經脫掉牛仔褲和真絲襯衫，穿了一套從阿拉伯人小店裏買來的普通西服，不過還繼續保持着倦怠的神態和教皇的風度。孩子們象從前梅梅的女伴們一樣，很快就熟悉了整座房子。每到深夜，都能聽到他們的饒舌聲、唱歌聲、打紅雀聲——整座房子好象一所寄宿學校，住着一羣放蕩不羈的孩子。奧雷連諾·布恩蒂亞並沒發現這一點，可是小客人們不久就闖到梅爾加德斯的房間前面。有一天早晨，兩個野男孩猛地拉開房門，不由得嚇了一大跳，只見一個骯裏骯髒、頭髮蓬亂的人坐在桌子旁邊鑽研羊皮紙手稿。男孩們不放貿然進去，但從此卻對這個古怪的陌生人發生了興趣。他們在門外唧唧咕咕，不時往鎖孔裏窺視，把各種髒東西從氣窗扔進房間，有一次還拿洋釘從外面把門窗釘死，奧雷連諾。 布恩蒂亞只好花上整整半天工夫給自己開闢一條出路。由於沒有懲罰孩子們玩的把戲，姑息了他們，他們的膽子更大了。有一次，趁奧雷連諾。布恩蒂亞在廚房的時候，四個男孩鑽進他的房間，企圖毀掉羊皮紙手稿。不想他們剛一抓起發黃的稿卷，一股無形的力量一下子把他們提了起來，把他們一個個懸在空中，直到奧雷連諾·布恩蒂亞回來，從他們手裏奪回了羊皮紙手稿。從那天起，他們再也沒有打擾過他了。
這四個男孩已經進入少年時代，可是還穿着短褲，霍。 阿卡蒂奧的外表就由他們裝扮。早晨他們比別人來得早，給他刮鬍子，用熱毛巾給他摩擦身子，給他修剪和磨光手指甲、腳趾甲，給他灑花露水。當他仰面朝天地漂在浴池裏、思念阿瑪蘭塔的時候，他們偶爾也爬進浴池去，從頭到腳給他洗澡，然後用毛巾給他擦乾身子，撲點滑石粉，給他穿上衣服。在這四個男孩當中，有一個男孩長着淡褐色頭髮，眼睛象兔子似的，彷彿用粉紅色玻璃製成，平時還留下來過夜。這孩子對霍。 阿卡蒂奧依依不捨，在霍·阿卡蒂奧因氣喘病失眠時，都不離開他，陪着他在一個個漆黑的房間裏走來走去。有一天半夜，在烏蘇娜的臥室裏，他們忽然發現水泥地面的縫隙裏冒出一道奇異的金光，似乎有個地下太陽把臥室的地面變成了閃閃發亮的櫥窗。爲了弄清這是怎麼回事，根本無需點燈，他們只是在烏蘇娜牀鋪的角落裏，在升起的光最亮的地方，稍稍揭起幾塊裂縫的石板一看；石板下出現一個地窖，原來這就是奧雷連諾第二那麼苦惱而又頑固地尋找的地窖。地窖裏放着三隻帆布袋，用一條銅絲拴着，裏面總共七千二百四十個金幣，它們在一片漆黑中光采熠熠，猶如一塊塊燒紅的炭。
