世紀文學經典:《百年孤獨》第4章Part 1

Chapter 4 Page 1
THE NEW HOUSE, white, like a dove, was inaugurated with a dance. úrsula had got that idea from the afternoon when she saw Rebeca and Amaranta changed into adolescents, and it could almost have been said that the main reason behind the construction was a desire to have a proper place for the girls to receive visitors. In order that nothing would be lacking in splendor she worked like a galley slave as the repairs were under way, so that before they were finished she had ordered costly necessities for the decorations, the table service, and the marvelous invention that was to arouse the astonishment of the town and the jubilation of the young people: the pianola. They delivered it broken down, packed in several boxes that were unloaded along with the Viennese furniture, the Bohemian crystal, the table service from the Indies Company, the tablecloths from Holland, and a rich variety of lamps and candlesticks, hangings and drapes. The import house sent along at its own expense an Italian expert, Pietro Crespi, to assemble and tune the pianola, to instruct the purchasers in its functioning, and to teach them how to dance the latest music printed on its six paper rolls.
Pietro Crespi was young and blond, the most handsome and well mannered man who had ever been seen in Macondo, so scrupulous in his dress that in spite of the suffocating heat he would work in his brocade vest and heavy coat of dark cloth. Soaked in sweat, keeping a reverent distance from the owners of the house, he spent several weeks shut up is the parlor with a dedication much like that of Aureliano in his silverwork. One morning, without opening the door, without calling anyone to witness the miracle, he placed the first roll in the pianola and the tormenting hammering and the constant noise of wooden lathings ceased in a silence that was startled at the order and neatness of the music. They all ran to the parlor. José Arcadio Buendía was as if struck by lightning, not because of the beauty of the melody, but because of the automatic working of the keys of the pianola, and he set up Melquíades' camera with the hope of getting a daguerreotype of the invisible player. That day the Italian had lunch with them. Rebeca and Amaranta, serving the table, were intimidated by the way in which the angelic man with pale and ringless hands manipulated the utensils. In the living room, next to the parlor, Pietro Crespi taught them how to dance. He showed them the steps without touching them, keeping time with a metronome, under the friendly eye of úrsula, who did not leave the room for a moment while her daughters had their lesson. Pietro Crespi wore special pants on those days, very elastic and tight, and dancing slippers, "You don't have to worry so much," José Arcadio Buendía told her. "The man's a fairy." But she did not leave off her vigilance until the apprenticeship was over and the Italian left Macondo. Then they began to organize the party. úrsula drew up a strict guest list, in which the only ones invited were the descendants of the founders, except for the family of Pilar Ternera, who by then had had two more children by unknown fathers. It was truly a highclass list, except that it was determined by feelings of friendship, for those favored were not only the oldest friends of José Arcadio Buendía's house since before they undertook the exodus and the founding of Macondo, but also their sons and grandsons, who were the constant companions of Aureliano and Arcadio since infancy, and their daughters, who were the only ones who visited the house to embroider with Rebeca and Amaranta. Don Apolinar Moscote, the benevolent ruler whose activity had been reduced to the maintenance from his scanty resources of two policemen armed with wooden clubs, was a figurehead. In older to support the household expenses his daughters had opened a sewing shop, where they made felt flowers as well as guava delicacies, and wrote love notes to order. But in spite of being modest and hard-working, the most beautiful girls in Iowa, and the most skilled at the new dances, they did not manage to be considered for the party.
While úrsula and the girls unpacked furniture, polished silverware, and hung pictures of maidens in boats full of roses, which gave a breath of new life to the naked areas that the masons had built, José Arcadio Buendía stopped his pursuit of the image of God, convinced of His nonexistence, and he took the pianola apart in order to decipher its magical secret. Two days before the party, swamped in a shower of leftover keys and hammers, bungling in the midst of a mixup of strings that would unroll in one direction and roll up again in the other, he succeeded in a fashion in putting the instrument back together. There had never been as many surprises and as much dashing about as in those days, but the new pitch lamps were lighted on the designated day and hour. The house was opened, still smelling of resin and damp whitewash, and the children and grandchildren of the founders saw the porch with ferns and begonias, the quiet rooms, the garden saturated with the fragrance of the roses, and they gathered together in the parlor, facing the unknown invention that had been covered with a white sheet. Those who were familiar with the piano, popular in other towns in the swamp, felt a little disheartened, but more bitter was úrsula's disappointment when she put in the first roll so that Amaranta and Rebeca could begin the dancing and the mechanism did not work. Melquíades, almost blind by then, crumbling with decrepitude, used the arts of his timeless wisdom in an attempt to fix it. Finally José Arcadio Buendía managed, by mistake, to move a device that was stuck and the music came out, first in a burst and then in a flow of mixed-up notes. Beating against the strings that had been put in without order or concert and had been tuned with temerity, the hammers let go. But the stubborn descendants of the twenty-one intrepid people who plowed through the mountains in search of the sea to the west avoided the reefs of the melodic mix-up and the dancing went on until dawn.

第四章
白得象鴿子的新宅落成之後，舉行了一次慶祝舞會。擴建房屋的事是烏蘇娜那天下午想到的，因爲她發現雷貝卡和阿瑪蘭塔都已成了大姑娘。其實，大興土木的主要原因就是希望有個合適的地方便於姑娘們接待客人。爲了出色地實現自己的願望，烏蘇娜活象個做苦工的女人，在修建過程中一直艱苦地勞動，甚至在房屋竣工之前，她就靠出售糖果和麪包賺了那麼多僞錢，以便能夠定購許多稀罕和貴重的東西，用作房屋的裝飾和設備，其中有一件將會引起全鎮驚訝和青年們狂歡的奇異發明一自動鋼琴。鋼琴是拆放在幾口箱子裏運到的，一塊兒運採的有維也納傢俱、波希米亞水晶玻璃器皿、西印度公司餐具、荷蘭桌布，還有許多各式各樣的燈具、燭臺、花瓶、窗帷和地毯。供應這些貨色的商號自費派來了一名意大利技師皮埃特羅·克列斯比，由他負責裝配和調準鋼琴，指導買主如何使用，並且教他們隨着六卷錄音帶上的流行歌曲跳舞。
皮埃特羅·克列斯比是個頭髮淡黃的年輕小夥子，馬孔多還不曾見過這樣漂亮、端莊的男人。他那麼注重外表，即使在悶熱的天氣下工作，也不脫掉錦緞坎肩和黑色厚呢上裝。他在客廳裏關了幾個星期，經常大汗淋淋，全神傾注地埋頭工作，就象奧雷連諾幹活那樣。在房主人面前，他卻保持着恰如其分的距離。有一天早晨，皮埃特羅·克列斯比沒有打開客廳的門，也沒叫任何人來觀看奇蹟，就把第一卷錄音帶插入鋼琴，討厭槌子敲擊聲和經久不息的噪音都突然停止了，在靜謐中奇異地響起了和諧和純正的樂曲。大家跑進客廳。霍·阿·布恩蒂亞驚得發呆，但他覺得奇異的不是美妙的旋律，而是琴鍵的自動起落。他甚至在房間裏安好了梅爾加德斯的照相機，打算把看不見的鋼琴手拍攝下來。這天早晨，意大利人跟全家一起進餐。這個天使般的人，雙手白皙，沒戴戒指，異常老練地使用着刀叉，照顧用膳的雷貝卡和阿瑪蘭塔一見就有點驚異。在客廳隔壁的大廳裏，皮埃特羅·克列斯比開始教她們跳舞。他並不跟姑娘們接觸，只用節拍器打着拍子，向她們表演各種舞步；烏蘇娜卻在旁邊彬彬有禮地監視；女兒們學習跳舞的時候，她一分鐘也沒離開房間。在這些日子裏，皮埃特羅·克列斯比穿上了舞鞋和緊繃繃的特殊褲子。“你不必那麼擔心，”霍·阿·布恩蒂亞對妻子說，“因爲這人象個娘兒們。”可是，在舞蹈訓練結束、意大利人離開馬孔多之後，烏蘇娜才離開了自己的崗位，接着開始了慶祝的準備工作。烏蘇娜擬了一份很有限的客人名單，其中僅僅包括馬孔多建村者的家庭成員，皮拉·苔列娜一家人卻不在內，因爲這時她又跟不知什麼男人生了兩個兒子。實際上，客人是按門第挑選的，雖然也是由友情決定的：因爲被邀請的人都是遠征和馬孔多建村之前霍·阿·布恩蒂亞家的老朋友和他們的後代；而這些後代從小就是奧雷連諾和阿卡蒂奧的密友，或者是跟雷貝卡和阿瑪蘭塔一塊兒繡花的姑娘。阿·摩斯柯特先生是個溫和的鎮長，他的權力純粹是有名無實的，他乾的事情就是靠自己的一點兒錢養着兩名用木棒武裝起來的警察。爲了彌補家庭開銷，他的女兒們開設了一家縫紉店，同時製作假花和番石榴糖果，甚至根據特殊要求代寫情書。儘管這些姑娘樸實、勤勞，是鎮上最漂亮的，新式舞比誰都跳得得好，可是她們卻沒列入舞會客人的名單。
烏蘇娜、阿瑪蘭塔和雷貝卡拆出裹着的傢俱，把銀器洗刷乾淨，而且爲了在泥瓦匠砌成的光禿禿的牆壁上增加生氣，到處掛起了薔薇船上的少女圖；這時，霍·阿·布恩蒂亞卻不再繼續追蹤上帝的影象，相信上帝是不存在的，而且拆開了自動鋼琴，打算識破它那不可思議的祕密。在慶祝舞會之前的兩天，他埋在不知哪兒弄來的一大堆螺釘和小槌子裏，在亂七八糟的絃線中間瞎忙一氣，這些絃線呀，剛從一端把它們伸直，它們立刻又從另一端捲了起來。他好不容易纔把樂器重新裝配好。霍·阿·布恩蒂亞家裏還從來不曾這麼忙亂過，但是新的煤油燈正好在規定的日子和規定的時刻亮了。房子還有焦油味和灰漿味，就開了門。馬孔多老居民的子孫參觀了擺着歐洲碳和秋海棠的長廊，觀看了暫時還寂靜無聲的一間間臥室，欣賞了充滿玫瑰芳香的花園，然後簇擁在客廳裏用白罩單遮住的一個神奇寶貝周圍。自動鋼琴在沼澤地帶的其他城鎮是相當普及的，那些已經見過這種樂器的人就覺得有點掃興，然而最失望的是烏蘇娜：她把第一卷錄音帶放進鋼琴，想讓雷貝卡和阿瑪蘭塔婆娑起舞，鋼琴卻不動了。梅爾加德斯幾乎已經雙目失明，衰老已極，卻想用往日那種神奇的本事把鋼琴修好。最後，霍·阿·布恩蒂亞完全偶然地移動了一下卡住的零件，鋼琴就發出了樂曲聲，開頭是咔嗒咔嗒的聲音，然後卻涌出混亂不堪的曲調。在隨便繃緊、胡亂調好的琴絃上，一個個小槌子不住地瞎敲。可是，翻山越嶺尋找過海洋的二十一個勇士頑固的後代，沒去理睬雜亂無章的樂曲。舞會一直繼續到了黎明。