世紀文學經典:《百年孤獨》第14章Part6
"That's a fine excuse," he said.
Meme realized that he was burning in the heat of his pride, and she desperately looked for a way to humiliate him. But he would not give her any time. "Don't get upset," he said to her in a low voice. "It's not the first time that a woman has gone crazy over a man." She felt so defeated that she left the garage without seeing the new models and she spent the night turning over in bed and weeping with indignation. The American redhead, who was really beginning to interest her, looked like a baby in diapers. It was then that she realized that the yellow butterflies preceded the appearances of Mauricio Babilonia. She had seen them before, especially over the garage, and she had thought that they were drawn by the smell of paint. Once she had seen them fluttering about her head before she went into the movies. But when Mauricio Babilonia began to pursue her like a ghost that only she could identify in the crowd, she understood that the butterflies had something to do with him. Mauricio Babilonia was always in theaudience at the concerts, at the movies, at high mass, and she did not have to see him to know that he was there, because the butterflies were always there. Once Aureli-ano Segun-do became so impatient with the suffocating fluttering that she felt the impulse to confide her secret to him as she had promised, but instinct told her that he would laugh as usual and say: "What would your mother say if she found out?" One morning, while she was pruning the roses, Fernanda let out a cry of fright and had Meme taken away from the spot where she was, which was the same place in the garden where Remedios the Beauty had gone up to heaven. She had thought for an instant that the miracle was going to be repeated with her daughter, because she had been bothered by a sudden flapping of wings. It was the butterflies. Meme saw them as if they had suddenly been born out of the light and her heart gave a turn. At that moment Mauricio Babilonia came in with a package that according to what he said, was a present from Patricia Brown. Meme swallowed her blush, absorbed her tribulation, and even managed a natural smile as she asked him the favor of leaving it on the railing because her hands were dirty from the garden. The only thing that Fernanda noted in the man whom a few months later she was to expel from the house without remembering where she had seen him was the bilious texture of his skin.
"He's a very strange man," Fernanda said. "You can see in his face that he's going to die."
“嗯，這個藉口不錯嘛，”他回答。
梅梅覺得，他那高傲的烈火的傷了她，她就拼命想法傷他的面子。但他不讓她有時間這麼幹。“別怕，”他降低聲音說。“女人爲男人發瘋已不是頭一遭了。”她覺得自己束手無策，甚至沒看新式汽車一眼，就從汽車庫走了出去，通宵都在牀上翻來覆去，氣得直哭。說實在的，已經使她感到興趣的那個紅頭髮美國人，此刻在她眼裏不過象一個裹着尿布的小孩兒了。正是從這個時候起，她發現黃蝴蝶預示毛裏西奧·巴比洛尼亞的出現。以前，尤其在汽車庫裏，她看見過黃蝴蝶，可她以爲它們是被油漆吸引到那兒去的。有一次，在暗黑的觀衆廳裏，梅梅聽到它們在她的頭頂上飛舞。但是，當毛裏西奧·巴比洛尼亞象個鬼影（在人羣中只有她一個人看得見這個鬼影）追蹤她的時候，她纔想到黃蝴蝶跟他有某種關係。在音樂會上，在電影院裏，在教堂裏做彌撒時，毛裏西奧·巴比洛尼亞經常都在人羣中間；要發現他，梅梅只消舉眼找到黃蝴蝶就行了。有一次奧雷連諾第二大發牢騷，咒罵黃蝴蝶討厭地飛來飛去，梅梅差點兒象她以前答應過父親的那樣，把自己的祕密告訴他，但她下意識地想到，他又會象往常一樣笑着說：“如果你母親知道了，她會說什麼呀？”有一天早上，菲蘭達和梅梅正在修剪玫瑰花叢的時候，菲蘭達忽然驚叫一聲，從梅梅站立的地方——俏姑娘雷麥黛絲昇天的地方，把梅梅往旁邊一拖。空中突然出現的翅膀拍動聲把菲蘭達嚇了一跳，剎那間她以爲怪事又要在女兒身上重現了。然而這是蝴蝶。它們那麼突然地出現在梅梅眼前，彷彿是從陽光裏產生的，使得她的心都縮緊了。就在這時，毛裏西奧。 巴比洛尼亞走進花園，手裏拿着一個包包，他說這是帕特里西婭。 布勞恩的贈品。梅梅勉強驅散了臉上羞澀的紅暈，裝出一副十分自然的笑容，請他把包包放在長廊的欄杆上，因爲她的手挺髒。菲蘭達在這個人身上注意到的，只是他那病態的、發黃的皮膚；幾個月之後她將把他攆出自己的家，甚至記不起她在哪兒見過他了。
“一個很古怪的人，”菲蘭達說。“憑他的臉色就能看出，他活不了多久。”
