世紀文學經典:《百年孤獨》第1章Part 4
When the gypsies came back, úrsula had turned the whole population of the village against them. But curiosity was greater than fear, for that time the gypsies went about the town making a deafening noise with all manner of musical instruments while a hawker announced the exhibition of the most fabulous discovery of the Naciancenes. So that everyone went to the tent and by paying one cent they saw a youthful Melquíades, recovered, unwrinkled, with a new and flashing set of teeth. Those who remembered his gums that had been destroyed by scurvy, his flaccid cheeks, and his withered lips trembled with fear at the final proof of the gypsy's supernatural power. The fear turned into panic when Melquíades took out his teeth, intact, encased in their gums, and showed them to the audience for an instant-a fleeting instant in which he went back to being the same decrepit man of years past-and put them back again and smiled once more with the full control of his restored youth. Even José Arcadio Buendía himself considered that Melquíades' knowledge had reached unbearable extremes, but he felt a healthy excitement when the gypsy explained to him atone the workings of his false teeth. It seemed so simple and so prodigious at the same time that overnight he lost all interest in his experiments in alchemy. He underwent a new crisis of bad humor. He did not go back to eating regularly, and he would spend the day walking through the house. "Incredible things are happening in the world," he said to úrsula. "Right there across the river there are all kinds of magical instruments while we keep on living like donkeys." Those who had known him since the foundation of Macondo were startled at how much he had changed under Melquíades' influence.
At first José Arcadio Buendía had been a kind of youthful patriarch who would give instructions for planting and advice for the raising of children and animals, and who collaborated with everyone, even in the physical work, for the welfare of the community. Since his house from the very first had been the best in the village, the others had been built in its image and likeness. It had a small, well-lighted living roost, a dining room in the shape of a terrace with gaily colored flowers, two bedrooms, a courtyard with a gigantic chestnut tree, a well kept garden, and a corral where goats, pigs, and hens lived in peaceful communion. The only animals that were prohibited, not just in his house but in the entire settlement, were fighting cocks.
úrsula's capacity for work was the same as that of her husband. Active, small, severe, that woman of unbreakable nerves who at no moment in her life had been heard to sing seemed to be everywhere, from dawn until quite late at night, always pursued by the soft whispering of her stiff, starched petticoats. Thanks to her the floors of tamped earth, the unwhitewashed mud walls, the rustic, wooden furniture they had built themselves were always dean, and the old chests where they kept their clothes exhaled the warm smell of basil.
吉卜賽人回來的時候，烏蘇娜唆使全村的人反對他們，可是好奇戰勝了恐懼，因爲吉卜賽人奏着各式各樣的樂器，鬧嚷嚷地經過街頭，他們的宣傳員說是要展出納希安茲人最奇的發明。大家都到吉卜賽人的帳篷去，花一分錢，就可看到返老還童的梅爾加德斯——身體康健，沒有皺紋，滿口漂亮的新牙。有些人還記得他壞血病毀掉的牙牀、凹陷的面頰、皺巴巴的嘴脣，一見吉卜賽人神通廣大的最新證明，都驚得發抖。接着，梅爾加從嘴裏取出一副完好的牙齒，剎那間又變成往日那個老朽的人，並且拿這副牙齒給觀衆看了一看，然後又把它裝上牙牀，微微一笑，似乎重新恢復了青春，這時大家的驚愕卻變成了狂歡。甚至霍·阿·布恩蒂亞本人也認爲，梅爾加德的知識到了不大可能達到的極限，可是當吉卜賽人單獨向他說明假牙的構造時，他的心也就輕快了，高興得放聲大笑。霍·阿·布恩蒂亞覺得這一切既簡單又奇妙，第二天他就完全失去了對鍊金術的興趣，陷入了沮喪狀態，不再按時進餐，從早到晚在屋子裏踱來踱去。“世界上正在發生不可思議的事，”他向烏蘇娜嘮叨。“咱們旁邊，就在河流對岸，已有許多各式各樣神奇的機器，可咱們仍在這兒象蠢驢一樣過日子。”馬孔多建立時就瞭解他的人都感到驚訝，在梅爾加德斯的影響下，他的變化多大啊！
從前，霍·阿·布恩蒂亞好象一個年輕的族長，經常告訴大家如何播種，如何教養孩子，如何飼養家畜；他跟大夥兒一起勞動，爲全村造福。布恩蒂亞家的房子是村裏最好的，其他的人都力求象他一樣建築自己的住所。他的房子有一個敞亮的小客廳、擺了一盆盆鮮花的陽臺餐室和兩間臥室，院子裏栽了一棵挺大的慄樹，房後是一座細心照料的菜園，還有一個畜欄，豬、雞和山羊在欄裏和睦相處。他家裏禁養鬥雞，全村也都禁養鬥雞。
烏蘇娜象丈夫一樣勤勞。她是一個嚴肅、活躍和矮小的女人，意志堅強，大概一輩子都沒唱過歌，每天從黎明到深夜，四處都有她的蹤影，到處都能聽到她那漿過的荷蘭亞麻布裙子輕微的沙沙聲。多虧她勤於照料，夯實的泥土地面、未曾粉刷的上牆、粗糙的自制木器，經常都是千乾淨淨的，而保存衣服的舊箱子還散發出紫蘇輕淡的芳香。
