世紀文學經典:《百年孤獨》第15章Part4

Martial law enabled the army to assume the functions of arbitrator in the controversy, but no effort at conciliation was made. As soon as they appeared in Macondo, the soldiers put aside their rifles and cut and loaded the bananas and started the trains running. The workers, who had been content to wait until then, went into the woods with no other weapons but their working machetes and they began to sabotage the sabotage. They burned plantations and commissaries, tore up tracks to impede the passage of the trains that began to open their path with machine-gun fire, and they cut telegraph and telephone wires. The irrigation ditches were stained with blood. Mr. Brown, who was alive in the electrified chicken coop, was taken out of Macondo with his family and those of his fellow countrymen and brought to a safe place under the protection of the army. The situation was threatening to lead to a bloody and unequal civil war when the authorities called upon the workers to gather in Macondo. The summons announced that the civil and military leader of the province would arrive on the following Friday ready to intercede in the conflict.
Jos?Arcadio Segundo was in the crowd that had gathered at the station on Friday since early in the morning. He had taken part in a meeting of union leaders and had been commissioned, along with Colonel Gavilán, to mingle in the crowd and orient it according to how things went. He did not feel well and a salty paste was beginning to collect on his palate when he noticed that the army had set up machine-gun emplacements around the small square and that the wired city of the banana company was protected by artillery pieces. Around twelve o’clock, waiting for a train that was not arriving, more than three thousand people, workers, women, and children, had spilled out of the open space in front of the station and were pressing into the neighboring streets, which the army had closed off with rows of machine guns. At that time it all seemed more like a jubilant fair than a waiting crowd. They had brought over the fritter and drink stands from the Street of the Turks and the people were in good spirits as they borethe tedium of waiting and the scorching sun. A short time before three o’clock the rumor spread that the official train would not arrive until the following day. The crowd let out a sigh of disappointment. An army lieutenant then climbed up onto the roof of the station where there were four machine-gun emplacements aiming at the crowd and called for silence. Next to Jos?Arcadio Segundo there was a barefooted woman, very fat, with two children between the ages of four and seven. She was carrying the smaller one and she asked Jos?Arcadio Segundo, without knowing him, if he would lift up the other one so that he could hear better. Jos?Arcadio Segundo put the child on his shoulders. Many years later that child would still tell, to the disbelief of all, that he had seen the lieutenant reading Decree No. 4 of the civil and military leader of the province through an old phonograph horn. It had been signed by General Carlos Cortes Vargas and his secretary, Major Enrique García Isaza, and in three articles of eightywords he declared the strikers to be a “bunch of hoodlums?and he authorized the army to shoot to kill.
After the decree was read, in the midst of a deafening hoot of protest, a captain took the place of the lieutenant on the roof of the station and with the horn he signaled that he wanted to speak. The crowd was quiet again.
“Ladies and gentlemen,?the captain said in a low voice that was slow and a little tired. “you have five minutes to withdraw.?
The redoubled hooting and shouting drowned out the bugle call that announced the start of the count. No one moved.
Five minutes have passed,?the captain said in the same tone. “One more minute and we’ll open fire.?
Jos?Arcadio Segundo, sweating ice, lowered the child and gave him to the woman. “Those bastards might just shoot,?she murmured. Jos?Arcadio Segundo did not have time to speak because at that instant he recognized the hoarse voice of Colonel Gavilán echoing the words of the woman with a shout. Intoxicated by the tension, by the miraculous depth of the silence, and furthermore convinced that nothing could move that crowd held tight in a fascination with death, Jos?Arcadio Segundo raised himself up over the heads in front of him and for the first time in his life he raised his voice.
“You bastards!?he shouted. “Take the extra minute and stick it up your ass!?
After his shout something happened that did not bring on fright but a kind of hallucination. The captain gave the order to fire and fourteen machine guns answered at once. But it all seemed like a farce. It was as if the machine guns had been loaded with caps, because their panting rattle could be heard and their incandescent spitting could be seen, but not the slightest reaction was perceived, not a cry, not even a sigh among the compact crowd that seemed petrified by an instantaneous invulnerability. Suddenly, on one side-of the station, a cry of death tore open the enchantment: “Aaaagh, Mother.?A seismic voice, a volcanic breath. the roar of a cataclysm broke out in the center of the crowd with a great potential of expansion. Jos?Arcadio Segundo barely had time to pick up the child while the mother with the other one was swallowed up by the crowd that swirled about in panic.
Many years later that child would still tell, in spite of people thinking that he was a crazy old man, how Jos?Arcadio Segundo had lifted him over his head and hauled him, almost in the air, as if floating on the terror of the crowd, toward a nearby street. The child’s privileged position allowed him to see at that moment that the wild mass was starting to get to the corner and the row of machine guns opened fire. Several voices shouted at the same time:
“Get down! Get down!?

根據戒嚴令，軍隊應當在爭執中起到仲裁者的作用，決不能在爭執者之間當和事佬。士兵們耀武揚威地經過馬孔多之後，就架起了槍支，開始收割香蕉，裝上列車運走了。至今還在靜待的工人們，進入了樹林，僅用大砍刀武裝起來，展開了反對工賊的鬥爭。他們焚燒公司的莊園和商店，拆毀鐵路路基，阻撓用機槍開闢道路的列車通行，割斷電話線和電報線。灌溉渠裏的水被血染紅了。安然無恙地呆在“電氣化養雞場”裏的布勞恩先生，在士兵們保護下，帶着自己的和同國人的家眷逃出了馬孔多，給送到了安全地點。正當事態將要發展成爲力量懸殊的、血腥的內戰時，政府號召工人們在馬孔多集中起來。號召書聲稱，省城的軍政首腦將在下星期蔽臨鎮上，調解衝突。
星期五清早聚集在車站上的人羣中，也有霍·阿卡蒂奧第二。前一天，他參加了工會頭頭們的會議，會上指示他和加維蘭上校混在羣衆中間，根據情況引導他們的行動。霍·阿卡蒂奧第二覺得不大自在：因爲軍隊在車站廣場周圍架起了機槍，香蕉公司的、鐵柵欄圍着的小鎮也用大炮保護起來； 他一發現這個情況，總是覺得嘴裏有一種苦鹹味兒。約莫中午十二點鐘，三千多人——工人、婦女和兒童——爲了等候還沒到達的列車，擁滿了車站前面的廣場，聚集在鄰近的街道上，街道是由士兵們用機槍封鎖住的。起初，這更象是節日的遊藝會。從土耳其人街上，搬來了出售食品飲料的攤子，人們精神抖擻地忍受着令人睏倦的等待和灼熱的太陽。三點鐘之前有人傳說，載着政府官員的列車最早明天才能到達。疲乏的羣衆失望地嘆了嘆氣。車站房屋頂上有四挺機槍的槍口對準人羣，一名中尉爬上屋頂，讓大家肅靜。霍·阿卡蒂奧第二身邊站着一個赤腳的胖女人，還有兩個大約四歲和七歲的孩子。她牽着小的一個，要求她不認識的霍·阿卡蒂奧第二抱起另一個，讓這孩子能夠聽得清楚一些。霍·阿卡蒂奧第二把孩子放在自己肩上。多年以後，這個孩子還向大家說（雖然誰也不相信他的話），中尉用擴音喇叭宣讀了省城軍政首腦的第四號命令。命令是由卡洛斯·柯特斯·伐加斯將軍和他的祕書恩裏克·加西亞·伊薩扎少校簽署的，在八十個字的三條命令裏，把罷工者說成是“一夥強盜”，授命軍隊不惜子彈，打死他們。
命令引起了震耳欲聾的抗議聲，可是一名上尉立即代替了屋頂上的中尉，揮着擴音喇叭表示他想講話。人羣又安靜了。
“女士們和先生們，”上尉低聲、緩和地說，顯得有點睏倦。“限你們五分鐘離開。”
唿哨聲和喊叫聲壓倒了宣佈時限開始的喇叭聲，誰也沒動。
“五分鐘過了，”上尉用同樣的聲調說。“再過一分鐘就開槍啦。”
霍·阿卡蒂奧第二渾身冷汗，放下孩子，把他交給他母親。“這幫壞蛋要開槍啦，”她嘟噥地說。霍·阿卡蒂奧第二來不及回答，因爲他立刻聽出了加維蘭上校嘶啞的嗓音，上校象迴音似的大聲重複了女人所說的話，時刻緊急，周圍靜得出奇，霍。 阿卡蒂奧第二象喝醉了酒似的，但他相信沒有任何力量能夠挪動在死神凝視下巋然不動的羣衆，就踮起腳尖，越過前面的頭頂，平生第一次提高嗓門叫道：
“雜種！你們趁早滾蛋吧！”
話音剛落，事情就發生了；這時，霍·阿卡蒂奧第二產生的不是恐懼，而是一種幻覺。上尉發出了開槍的命令，十四挺機槍立即響應。但這一切象是滑稽戲。他們彷彿在作空彈射擊，因爲機槍的噠噠聲可以聽到，閃閃的火舌可以看見，但是緊緊擠在一起的羣衆既沒叫喊一聲，也沒嘆息一聲，他們都象石化了，變得刀槍不入了。驀然間，在車站另一邊，一聲臨死的嚎叫，使大家從迷糊狀態中清醒過來：“啊一啊一啊一啊，媽媽呀！”好象強烈的地震，好象火山的轟鳴，好象洪水的咆哮，震動了人羣的中心，頃刻間擴及整個廣場。霍·阿卡蒂奧第二剛剛拉住一個孩子，母親和另一個孩子就被混亂中奔跑的人羣捲走了。
多年以後，儘管大家認爲這孩子已經是個昏聵的老頭兒，但他還在說，霍。 阿卡蒂奧第二如何把他舉在頭上，幾乎讓他懸在空中，彷彿在人羣的恐怖浪潮中漂浮似的，把他帶到鄰近的一條街上。舉過人們頭頂的孩子從上面望見，慌亂的人羣開始接近街角，那裏的一排機槍開火了。幾個人同時叫喊：
“臥倒！臥倒！”