世紀文學經典:《百年孤獨》第15章Part2

Meme took her hand and let herself be led. The last time that Fernanda saw her, trying to keep up with the novice, the iron grating of the cloister had just closed behind her. She was still thinking about Mauricio Babilonia, his smell of grease, and his halo of butterflies, and she would keep on thinking about him for all the days of her life until the remote autumn morning when she died of old age, with her name changed and her head shaved and without ever having spoken a word, in a gloomy hospital in anda returned to Macondo on a train protected by armed police. During the trip she noticed the tension of the passengers, the military preparations in the towns along the line, and an atmosphere rarified by the certainty that something serious was going to happen, but she had no information until she reached Macondo and they told her that Jos?Arcadio Segundo was inciting the workers of the banana company to strike. “That’s all we need,?Fernanda said to herself. “An anarchist in the family.?The strike broke out two weeks later and it did not have the dramatic consequences that had been feared. The workers demanded that they not be obliged to cut and load bananas on Sundays, and the position seemed so just that even Father Antonio Isabel interceded in its favor because he found it in accordance with the laws of God. That victory, along with other actions that were initiated during the following months, drew the colorless Jos?Arcadio Segundo out of his anonymity, for people had been accustomed to say that he was only good for filling up the town with French whores. With the same impulsive decision with which he had auctioned off his fighting cocks in order to organize a harebrained boat business, he gave up his position as foreman in the banana company and took the side of the workers. Quite soon he was pointed out as the agent of an international conspiracy against public order. One night, during the course of a week darkened by somber rumors, he miraculously escaped four revolver shots taken at him by an unknown party as he was leaving a secret meeting. The atmosphere of the following months was so tense that even ?rsula perceived it in her dark corner, and she had the impression that once more she was living through the dangerous times when her son Aureliano carried the homeopathic pills of subversion in his pocket. She tried to speak to Jos?Arcadio Segundo, to let him know about that precedent, but Aureliano Segundo told her that since the night of the attempt on his life no one knew his whereabouts. “Just like Aureliano,??rsula exclaimed. “It’s as if the world were repeating itself.?
Fernanda, was immune to the uncertainty of those days. She had no contact with the outside world since the violent altercation she had had with her husband over her having decided Memes fate without his consent. Aureliano Segundo was prepared to rescue his daughter with the help of the police if necessary, but Fernanda showed him some papers that were proof that she had entered the convent of her own free will. Meme had indeed signed once she was already behind the iron grating and she did it with the same indifference with which she had allowed herself to be led away. Underneath it all, Aureliano Segundo did not believe in the legitimacy of the proof. Just as he never believed that Mauricio Babilonia had gone into the yard to steal chickens, but both expedients served to ease his conscience, and thus he could go back without remorse under the shadow of Petra Cotes, where he revived his noisy revelry and unlimited gourmandizing. Foreign to the restlessness of the town, deaf to ?rsula’s quiet predictions. Fernanda gave the last tam to the screw of her preconceived plan. She wrote a long letter to her son Jos?Arcadio, who was then about to take his first orders, and in it she told him that his sister Renata had expired in the peace of the Lord and as a consequence of the black vomit. Then she put Amaranta ?rsula under the care of Santa Sofía de la Piedad and dedicated herself to organizing her correspondence with the invisible doctors, which had been upset by Meme’s trouble. The first thing that she did was to set a definite date for the postponed telepathic operation. But the invisible doctors answered her that it was not wise so long as the state of social agitation continued in Macondo. She was so urgent and so poorly Informed that she explained to them In another letter that there was no such state of agitation and that everything was the result of the lunacy of a brother-in-law of hers who was fiddling around at that time in that labor union nonsense just as he had been involved with cockfighting and riverboats before. They were still not in agreement on the hot Wednesday when an aged nun knocked at the door bearing a small basket on her arm. When she opened the door Santa Sofía de la Piedad thought that it was a gift and tried to take the small basket that was covered with a lovely lace wrap. But the nun stopped her because she had instructions to give it personally and with the strictest secrecy to Do?a Fernanda del Carpio de Buendía. It was Meme’s son. Fernanda’s former spiritual director explained to her in a letter that he had been born two months before and that they had taken the privilege of baptizing him Aureliano, for his grandfather, because his mother would not open her lips to tell them her wishes. Fernanda rose up inside against that trick of fate, but she had sufficient strength to hide it in front of the nun. “We’ll tell them that we found him floating in the basket,?she said smiling.
“No one will believe it,?the nun said.
“If they believe it in the Bible,?Fernanda replied, “I don’t see why they shouldn’t believe it from me.?

梅梅抓住修女的手，順從地讓她把她帶走。菲蘭達最後一次看見女兒的時候，這姑娘跟上修女的腳步，已經到了剛剛關上的修道院鐵柵欄另一面。梅梅仍在思念毛裏西奧。 巴比洛尼亞——想着他身上發出的機油氣味，想着他頭上的一羣黃蝴蝶——，而且終生都想着他，直到很久以後一個秋天的早晨，她老死在克拉科夫一個陰暗的醫院裏；她是化名死去的，始終沒說什麼。菲蘭達是搭乘武裝警察保護的列車返回馬孔多的。旅途上，她驚異地看出了乘客們緊張的面孔，發現了鐵路沿線城鎮的軍事戒備狀態，聞到了山雨欲來風滿樓的氣息，然而菲蘭達並不明白這是怎麼一回事，回到馬孔多之後她才聽說，霍。阿卡蒂奧第二正在鼓動香焦園工人罷工。“我們家裏就是需要一個無政府主義者嘛，”菲蘭達自言自語。兩個星期之後，罷工就開始了，沒有發生大家擔心的悲慘後果。工人們拒絕在星期天收割和運送香蕉，這個要求似乎是十分合理的，就連伊薩貝爾神父也表示讚許，認爲它是符合聖規的。這次罷工的勝利，猶如隨後幾個月爆發的罷工，使得霍·阿卡蒂奧第二的蒼白形象有了光彩，因爲人家一貫說他只會讓法國妓女充斥整個市鎮。就象從前突然決定賣掉自己的鬥雞，準備建立毫無意義的航行企業那樣，霍。 阿卡蒂奧第二現在決定放棄香蕉公司監工的職務，站在工人方面。沒過多久，政府就宣稱他是國際陰謀集團的走狗，說他破壞社會秩序。在謠言紛紛的一週間，有一天夜晚，在離開祕密會議的路上，他神奇地逃脫了一個陌生人暗中向他射來的四顆手槍子彈。隨後幾個月的空氣是那麼緊張，就連烏蘇娜在她黑暗的角落裏也感覺到了，她彷彿又處在兒子奧雷連諾上校衣兜裏塞滿“順勢療法”藥丸掩護顛覆活動的那種危險時代。她想跟霍。 阿卡蒂奧第二談談，讓他知道過去的經驗教訓，可是奧雷連諾第二告訴她說，從他兄弟遭到暗殺的那一夜起，誰也不知道他到哪兒去了。“跟奧雷連諾上校一模一樣，”烏蘇娜慨嘆一聲。“彷彿世上的一切都在循環。”

這些日子的惶惶不安並沒有使菲蘭達受到影響。由於她未經丈夫同意就決定了梅梅的命運，丈夫生氣地跟她大吵了一頓，她就不跟外界接觸了。奧雷連諾第二威脅她，說他要把女兒從修道院里弄出來——必要時就請警察幫忙——，可是菲蘭達給他看了幾張紙兒，證明梅梅是自願進修道院的，其實，梅梅在這些紙兒上簽字時，已在鐵柵欄裏邊了，而且象她讓母親帶她出來一樣，她在紙上籤個字兒也是無所謂的，奧雷連諾第二內心深處並不相信這種證明是真的，就象他決不相信毛裏西奧。 巴比洛尼亞鑽進院子是想偷雞。但是兩種解釋都幫助他安了心，使他毫不懊悔地回到佩特娜·柯特的卵翼下，在她家裏重新狂歡作樂和大擺酒宴。菲蘭達對全鎮的恐慌毫不過問，對烏蘇娜可怕的預言充耳不聞，加緊實現自己的計劃。她寫了一封長信給霍。 阿卡蒂奧（他很快就成了牧師），說他妹妹雷納塔患了黃熱病，已經安謐地長眠了。然後，她把阿瑪蘭塔·烏蘇娜交給聖索菲婭。 德拉佩德照顧，就重新跟沒有見過的醫生通信，因爲這樣的通信被梅梅的不幸事故打斷了。她首先確定了接受心靈感應術治療的最後日期。可是沒有見過的醫生回答她說，馬孔多的混亂狀態還沒結束的時候，施行這種手術是輕率的。菲蘭達心情急切，消息很不靈通，便在下一封信裏向他們說，鎮上沒有任何混亂，現在一切都怪她狂妄的夫兄極端愚蠢，着迷地去幹工會的事兒，就象從前狂熱地愛上鬥雞和航行那樣。在一個炎熱的星期三，她和醫生們還沒取得一致的意見，就有一個手上挎着小筐子的老修女來敲房門。聖索菲婭·德拉佩德把門打開以後，以爲這是誰送來的禮物，想從修女手中接過雅緻的花邊餐巾遮住的筐子。可是老修女阻止了她，因爲人家囑咐她把筐子祕密地親自交給菲蘭達·德卡皮奧·布恩蒂亞太太。躺在筐子裏的是梅梅的兒子。菲蘭達往日的懺悔神父在信裏向她說，孩子是兩個月前出生的，他們已經給他取名叫奧雷連諾。 布恩蒂亞，以紀念他的祖父，因爲他的母親根本不願張嘴表示自己的意願。菲蘭達心中痛恨命運的捉弄，但她還有足夠的力量在修女面前加以遮掩。“咱們就說是在河上漂來的筐子裏發現他的吧，”她微笑着說。
“誰也不會相信這種說法，”修女說。
“如果大家相信《聖經》裏的說法，”菲蘭達回答，“我看不出人家爲什麼不相信我的說法。”