世紀文學經典:《百年孤獨》第7章Part 12

They talked about fighting cocks. They promised each other to set up a breeding farm for magnificent birds, not so much to enjoy their victories, which they would not need then, as to have something to do on the tedious Sundays of death. It was Prudencio Aguilar who cleaned him fed him and brought him splendid news of an unknown person called Aureliano who was a colonel in the war. When he was alone, José Arcadio Buendía consoled himself with the dream of the infinite rooms. He dreamed that he was getting out of bed, opening the door and going into an identical room with the same bed with a wrought-iron head, the same wicker chair, and the same small picture of the Virgin of Help on the back wall. From that room he would go into another that was just the same, the door of which would open into another that was just the same, the door of which would open into another one just the same, and then into another exactly alike, and so on to infinity. He liked to go from room to room.
As in a gallery of parallel mirrors, until Prudencio Aguilar would touch him on the shoulder. Then he would go back from room to room, walking in reverse, going back over his trail, and he would find Prudencio Aguilar in the room of reality. But one night, two weeks after they took him to his bed, Prudencio Aguilar touched his shoulder in an intermediate room and he stayed there forever, thinking that it was the real room. On the following morning úrsula was bringing him his breakfast when she saw a man coming along the hall. He was short and stocky, with a black suit on and a hat that was also black, enormous, pulled down to his taciturn eyes. "Good Lord," úrsula thought, "I could have sworn it was Melquíades." It was Cataure, Visitación's brother, who had left the house fleeing from the insomnia plague and of whom there had never been any news. Visitación asked him why he had come back, and he answered her in their solemn language:
"I have come for the exequies of the king."
Then they went into José Arcadio Buendía's room, shook him as hard as they could, shouted in his ear, put a mirror in front of his nostrils, but they could not awaken him. A short time later, when the carpenter was taking measurements for the coffin, through the window they saw a light rain of tiny yellow flowers falling. They fell on the town all through the night in a silent storm, and they covered the roofs and blocked the doors and smothered the animals who dept outdoors. So many flowers fell from the sky that in the morning the streets were carpeted with a compact cushion and they had to clear them away with shovels and rakes so that the funeral procession could pass by.

他倆談到公雞，打算一塊兒建立一個繁殖場，飼養一些出色的鳥禽——不是爲了拿它們的勝利來取樂，因爲他倆已經不需要這種勝利了，只是爲了在死人國裏漫長、沉悶的星期天有點兒消遣。普魯登希奧。 阿吉廖爾給霍。 阿。 布恩蒂亞擦擦洗洗，給他吃東西，把一個陌生人的好消息告訴他，那人叫做奧雷連諾，是戰爭中的一名上校。霍。 阿。 布恩蒂亞獨個兒留下的時候，他就在夢中尋求安慰，夢見無窮無盡的房間。他夢見自己從牀上站立起來，打開房門，走進另一個同樣的房間，這裏有同樣的牀（牀頭是包上鐵皮的），有同樣的藤椅，後牆上也有“救命女神”的小畫像。從這個房間，他又走進另一個同樣的房間，這個房間的門又通向另一個同樣的房間，然後又是一個同樣的房間，——就這樣無窮無盡。
他很喜歡從一個房間走進另一個房間——很象走過兩排並列鏡子之間的一道長廊……隨後，普魯登希奧。阿吉廖爾摸了摸他的肩膀。於是，他逐漸醒來，從一個房間倒退到另一個房間，走完漫長的回頭路，直到在真正的房間裏見到普魯登希奧·阿吉廖爾。可是霍·阿·布恩蒂亞遷到牀上之後過了兩個星期，有一天夜裏，他在最遠的一個房間裏時，普魯登希奧。阿吉廖爾摸了摸他的肩膀，他卻沒有往回走，永遠留在那兒了，以爲那個房間是真正的房間。第二天早上，烏蘇娜送早飯給丈夫的時候，忽然看見一個男人沿着走廊朝她走來。這人矮壯墩實，穿一身黑呢衣服，戴一頂挺大的黑帽子，帽子拉得遮住了悲慼的眼睛。“我的天啦，”烏蘇娜想道。“我能發誓，這是梅爾加德斯。”然而這是卡塔烏爾，維希塔香的弟弟，他爲了躲避失限症，從這裏逃走之後，一直音訊杏無。維希塔香問他爲什麼回來，他用本族語佔莊嚴而響亮地說：
“我是來參加國王葬禮的。”
接着，他們走進霍·阿·布恩蒂亞的房間，開始使勁搖晃他，對着他的耳朵叫喊，把一面鏡子拿到他的鼻孔前面，可是始終未能喚醒他。稍遲一些，木匠給死者量棺材尺寸時，看見窗外下起了細微的黃花雨。整整一夜，黃色的花朵象無聲的暴雨，在市鎮上空紛紛飄落，鋪滿了所有的房頂，堵塞了房門，遮沒了睡在戶外的牲畜。天上落下了那麼多的黃色花朵，翌日早晨，整個馬孔多彷彿鋪了一層密實的地毯，所以不得不用鏟子和耙子爲送葬隊伍清除道路。