世紀文學經典:《百年孤獨》第15章Part7

Nevertheless, that surge of humanity did not alter his professional conduct. At Melquíades?room, which was locked up again with the padlock, Santa Sofía de la Piedad tried one last hope. “No one has lived in that room for a century,?she said. The officer had it opened and flashed the beam of the lantern over it, and Aureliano Segundo and Santa Sofía de la Piedad saw the Arab eyes of Jos?Arcadio Segundo at the moment when the ray of light passed over his face and they understood that it was the end of one anxiety and the beginning of another which would find relief only in resignation. But the officer continued examining the room with the lantern and showed no sign of interest until he discovered the seventy-two chamberpots piled up in the cupboards. Then he turned on the light. Jos?Arcadio Segundo was sitting on the edge of the cot, ready to go, more solemn and pensive than ever. In the background were the shelves with the shredded books, the rolls of parchment, and the clean and orderly worktable with the ink still fresh in the inkwells. There was the same pureness in the air, the same clarity, the same respite from dust and destruction that Aureliano Segundo had known in childhood and that only Colonel Aureliano Buendía could not perceive. But the officer was only interested in the chamberpots.
“How many people live in this house??he asked.
“Five.?
The officer obviously did not understand. He paused with his glance on the space where Aureliano Segundo and Santa Soft de la Piedad were still seeing Jos?Arcadio Segundo and the latter also realized that the soldier was looking at him without seeing him. Then he turned out the light and closed the door. When he spoke to the soldiers, Aureliano, Segundo understood that the young officer had seen the room with the same eyes as Colonel Aureliano Buendía.
“It’s obvious that no one has been in that room for at least a hundred years.?the officer said to the soldiers. “There must even be snakes in there.?
When the door closed, Jos?Arcadio Segundo was sure that the war was over. Years before Colonel Aureliano Buendía had spoken to him about the fascination of war and had tried to show it to him with countless examples drawn from his own experience. He had believed him. But the night when the soldiers looked at him without seeing him while he thought about the tension of the past few months, the misery of jail, the panic at the station, and the train loaded with dead people, Jos?Arcadio Segundo reached the conclusion that Colonel Aureliano Buendía was nothing but a faker or an imbecile. He could not understand why he had needed so many words to explain what he felt in war because one was enough: fear. In Melquíades?room, on the other hand, protected by the supernatural light, by the sound of the rain, by the feeling of being invisible, he found the repose that he had not had for one single instant during his previous life, and the only fear that remained was that they would bury him alive. He told Santa Sofía de la Piedad about it when she brought him his daily meals and she promised to struggle to stay alive even beyond her natural forces in order to make sure that they would bury him dead. Free from all fear, Jos?Arcadio Segundo dedicated himself then to peruse the manuscripts of Melquíades many times, and with so much more pleasure when he could not understand them. He became accustomed to the sound of the rain, which after two months had become another form of silence, and the only thing that disturbed his solitude was the coming and going of Santa Sofía de la Piedad. He asked her, therefore, to leave the meals on the windowsill and padlock the door. The rest of the family forgot about him including Fernanda, who did not mind leaving him there when she found that the soldiers had seen him without recognizing him. After six months of enclosure, since the soldiers had left Macondo Aureliano Segundo removed the padlock, looking for someone he could talk to until the rain stopped. As soon as he opened the doorhe felt the pestilential attack of the chamberpots, which were placed on the floor and all of which had been used several times. Jos?Arcadio Segundo, devoured by baldness, indifferent to the air that had been sharpened by the nauseating vapors, was still reading and rereading the unintelligible parchments. He was illuminated by a seraphic glow. He scarcely raised his eyes when he heard the door open, but that look was enough for his brother to see repeated in it the irreparable fate of his great-grandfather.
“There were more than three thousand of them,?was all that Jos?Arcadio Segundo said. “I’m sure now that they were everybody who had been at the station.?

然而，人道的衝動並沒有影響他的職業行動。在梅爾加德斯的房門前面，聖索菲婭。 德拉佩德使出了她的最後一招。“這兒幾乎一百年不曾住人了，”她說。軍官命令打開房門，拿燈火朝房間裏掃了一遍，光線在霍。 阿卡蒂奧第二臉上掠過的片該間，奧雷連諾第二和聖索菲婭·德拉佩德都瞧見了他那阿拉伯人似的眼睛，明白這是一種擔憂的終結，另一種擔憂的開端，要解除這種擔憂只有聽天由命。然而軍官拿燈照射房間，沒有顯露任何興趣，直到發現了堆在櫥裏的七十二個便盆。接着，他極開電燈。霍。 阿卡蒂奧第二顯出比以前更加莊重和沉思的神態，坐在牀沿，準備站起來就走。在他身後可以看見放着破書和羊皮紙手稿的書架，還可看見整潔的工作臺，墨水瓶裏的墨水還是滿滿的，在這個房間裏，空氣還是那麼清新和潔淨，灰塵還是那麼少，一切都沒破壞，就象奧雷連諾第二從小記得的那樣，這種情形當時只有奧雷連諾上校未能發現。然而，軍官感到興趣的只是便盆。
“有多少人住在這座房子裏？”他問。
“五個。”
軍官顯然大惑不解。他的視線停在奧雷連諾第二和聖索菲婉。德拉佩德繼續看見霍。 阿卡蒂奧第二的空間；現在霍·阿卡蒂奧第二自已也發覺，軍官望着他，卻沒看見他。然後，軍官滅了燈，關上了門。當他和士兵們談話的時候，奧雷連諾第二明白，這個年輕的軍官是用奧雷連諾上校那樣的眼光看待梅爾加德斯的房間的。
“顯蜘這兒起碼一百年無人居住了，‘軍官向士兵們說。”裏面大概有蛇。“
房門關上以後，霍。阿卡蒂奧第二相信戰爭已經過去了。許多年前奧雷連諾上校曾經向他談到戰爭的魅力，並且試圖以自己生活中的充數事例證明自己的見解。霍·阿卡蒂奧第二相信了他。可是在軍官對他視而不見的那天夜裏，他想起了最近幾個月的緊張狀態，想起了監獄的骯髒，想起了車站上的混亂，想起了載滿屍體的列車，最後認爲奧雷連諾上校不過是個騙子或傻瓜。他不明白，爲什麼需要耗費那麼多的話語來解釋自己在戰爭中的感受，其實只要一個詞兒就夠了：恐怖。在梅爾加德斯的房間裏，神奇的陽光和淅瀝的雨聲似乎都在保護他，他感到別人看不見他，他就獲得了自己過去一生中一分鐘也不曾有過的寧靜，他唯一想到的是害怕別人把他活活埋掉。他向給他送飯來的聖索菲婭·德拉佩德說到了這一點，她就答應儘量活得長久一些，以便親眼看見他死了以後才被埋掉。就這樣，霍·阿卡蒂奧第二終於擺脫了一切恐懼，開始研究梅爾加德斯的羊皮紙手稿，他越不理解它們，就越有興趣地繼續研究。他已聽慣了雨聲，兩個月以後，雨聲也變成了另一種形式的寧靜，只有聖索菲婭·德拉佩德的出現才擾亂了他的寧靜。他要她把飲食放在窗臺上，而用掛鎖把門鎖上。家中其餘的人，其中包括菲蘭達，都把霍·阿卡蒂奧第二給忘記了。自從知道軍官在房間裏碰見他，而沒看見他，菲蘭達就讓他呆在這兒了。霍·阿卡蒂奧第二幽居了半年之後，軍隊離開了馬孔多，奧雷連諾第二渴望找人聊天，等雨停止，就取下了房門上的掛鎖。
他剛進屋，立刻聞到了便盆的臭氣——這些便盆放在地上，全都用過幾次了。霍·阿卡蒂奧第二已經禿頂，對令人作嘔、毒化空氣的惡臭滿不在乎，繼續反覆閱讀難以理解的羊皮紙手稿。他渾身都是天使般的光彩。聽到開門的聲音，他只是從桌上揚起眼來，接着又俯下了眼睛，但在這短暫的一瞬裏，奧雷連諾第二已經足以看出兄弟也將遭到曾祖父避免不了的命運。
“他們有三千多人，”霍·阿卡蒂奧第二說，‘我相信，全都是聚在車站上的。“