世紀文學經典:《百年孤獨》第10章Part 7

The power of his presence was such that from the first time he was seen in the church everybody took it for granted that a silent and tense duel had been established between him and Remedios the Beauty, a secret pact, an irrevocable challenge that would end not only in love but also in death. On the sixth Sunday the gentleman appeared with a yellow rose in his hand. He heard mass standing, as he always did, and at the end he stepped in front of Remedios the Beauty and offered her the solitary rose. She took it with a natural gesture, as if she had been prepared for that homage, and then she uncovered her face and gave her thanks with a smile. That was all she did. Not only for the gentleman, but for all the men who had the unfortunate privilege of seeing her, that was an eternal instant.
From then on the gentleman had a band of musicians play beside the window of Remedios the Beauty, sometimes until dawn. Aureli-ano Segun-do was the only one who felt a cordial compassion for him and he tried to break his perseverance. "Don't waste your time any more," he told him one night. "The women in this house are worse than mules." He offered him his friendship, invited him to bathe in champagne, tried to make him understand that the females of his family had insides made of flint, but he could not weaken his obstinacy. Exasperated by the interminable nights of music, Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía threatened to cure his affliction with a few pistol shots. Nothing made him desist except his own lamentable state of demoralization. From a welldressed and neat individual he became filthy and ragged. It was rumored that he had abandoned power and fortune in his distant nation, although his origins were actually never known. He became argumentative, a barroom brawler, and he would wake up rolling in his own filth in Catarino's store. The saddest part of his drama was that Remedios the Beauty did not notice him not even when he appeared in church dressed like a prince. She accepted the yellow rose without the least bit of malice, amused, rather, by the extravagance of the act, and she lifted her shawl to see his face better, not to show hers.
Actually, Remedios the Beauty was not a creature of this world. Until she was well along in puberty Santa Sofía de la. Piedad had to bathe and dress her, and even when she could take care of herself it was necessary to keep an eye on her so that she would not paint little animals on the walls with a stick daubed in her own excrement. She reached twenty without knowing how to read or write, unable to use the silver at the table, wandering naked through the house because her nature rejected all manner of convention. When the young commander of the guard declared his love for her, she rejected him simply because his frivolity startled her. "See how simple he is," she told Amaranta. "He says that he's dying because of me, as if I were a bad case of colic." When, indeed, they found him dead beside her window, Remedios the Beauty confirmed her first impression.
"You see," she commented. "He was a complete Simpleton."
It seemed as if some penetrating lucidity permitted her to see the reality of things beyond any formalism. That at least was the point of view of Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía, for whom Remedios the Beauty was in no way mentally retarded, as was generally believed, but quite the opposite. "It's as if she's come back from twenty years of war," he would say. úrsula, for her part, thanked God for having awarded the family with a creature of exceptional purity, but at the same time she was disturbed by her beauty, for it seemed a contradictory virtue to her, a diabolical trap at the center of her innocence. It was for that reason that she decided to keep her away from the world, to protect her from all earthly temptation, not knowing that Remedios the Beauty, even from the time when she was in her mother's womb, was safe from any contagion. It never entered her head that they would elect her beauty queen of the carnival pandemonium. But Aureli-ano, Segun-do, excited at the caprice of disguising himself as a tiger,brought Father Antonio Isabel to the house in order to convince úrsula that the carnival was not a pagan feast, as she said, but a Catholic tradition. Finally convinced, even though reluctantly, she consented to the coronation.

他第一次走進教堂就引起了大家的注意，人們認爲，他和俏姑娘雷麥黛絲之間開始了無聲的、緊張的決鬥，簽訂了祕密條約，出現了致命的競賽，結局不僅是愛情，而且是死亡。在第六個星期天，這青年紳士拿着一朵黃玫瑰來到教堂裏。他照舊站着聽彌撒，彌撒結束之後，就去攔住俏姑娘雷麥黛絲，向她獻上玫瑰。姑娘彷彿正在等候這個禮品似的，十分自然地接過花兒，片刻間微微撩起面紗，向陌生人嫣然一笑表示感謝。這就是她所做的一切。然而，不僅對他，而且對所有不幸在場的男人，這一瞬間都是永遠難忘的。
自此以後，青年紳士就帶了一個樂隊來到她的窗下，有時一直演奏到天亮。奧雷連諾第二是布恩蒂亞家中唯一衷心同情他的人，試圖讓他放棄癡心妄想。“不要白白浪費時間了，”有一天夜裏他向年輕的紳士說。“這個家庭的女人比母驢還犟。”他向陌生人表示友好，請他痛飲香檳酒，想要讓他明白布恩蒂亞家的女人都是鐵石心腸，可是始終未能說服他。奧雷連諾上校被這種沒完沒了的夜間音樂會攪得十分惱火，就恐嚇年輕的紳士，說要用手槍治療他的痛苦。可是，什麼也不能促使他放棄自己的打算，除非到了完全絕望的地步。於是，他從一個衣冠楚楚、溫文爾雅的青年變成了一個衣衫破爛、骯裏骯髒的人。聽說，在他那遙遠的國度裏，他放棄了權勢和財富，雖然實際上誰也不知道他的身世。現在，他喜歡惹事生非、尋釁鬥毆、狂喝濫飲，天亮時總在卡塔林諾遊藝場裏。他的悲劇中最慘痛的是，即使當他打扮得象個王子出現在教堂裏的時候，俏姑娘雷麥黛絲實際上也沒瞧上他。她接受他的黃玫瑰時毫無一點嬌態，只是對他異常的舉動感到有趣，而她撩起面紗只是爲了看清他的面孔，根本不是爲了拿自己的臉蛋兒讓他欣賞。
其實，俏姑娘雷麥黛絲並不是這個世界的人。在她脫離兒童時代之後很久，聖索菲婭·德拉佩德還得給她洗澡、穿衣服；即使在她自己能夠料理這些事兒的時候，仍要盯住她，免得她用塗抹了自己的糞便的棍兒在牆上畫小動物。到二十歲時，她還沒學會讀書寫字，還不會使用餐具，而且赤身露體在屋子裏走來走去——她的天性是反對一切規矩的。年輕的軍官——衛隊長向她求愛時，她拒絕了他，只是因爲她對他的輕率感到奇怪。“瞧這個傻瓜，”她向阿瑪蘭塔說。“他說他要爲我死，難道我患了絞腸痧不成？”發現這軍官真的死在她的窗下時，俏姑娘雷麥黛絲證實了自己的第一個印象。
“你瞧，”她說，“一個十足的傻瓜。”
彷彿有一種超自然的洞察力使她能夠撇開一切表面現象，看見事物的本質。這起碼是奧雷連諾上校的認識。在他看來，俏姑娘雷麥黛絲決不是別人所謂的呆子，而是相反的人。“她好象經歷過二十年戰爭，”他喜歡這麼說。烏蘇娜也感謝上帝賜給她家裏一個特別純潔的人，但曾孫女的姿色卻使她焦心，她覺得這種姿色不是優點，而是缺點——是她那天真純樸中坑人的鬼圈套。因此，烏蘇娜希望俏姑娘雷麥黛絲遠離人羣，不受塵世的誘惑，其實她不知道，俏姑娘雷麥黛絲甚至還在娘肚子裏時就有了防禦任何“傳染病”的能力。烏蘇娜不能容忍別人把她的曾孫女選爲魔鬼集會——所謂“狂歡節”——美的女王、可是，奧雷連諾第二熱望扮一隻老虎，就把安東尼奧·伊薩貝爾神父邀到家裏，請他向烏蘇娜解釋，狂歡節並不象她認爲的是異教徒的節日，而是天主教尊崇的民間習俗。神父終於說服了她，她才勉強同意了這樣的加冕。