百年孤独为什么值得看 世纪文学经典:《百年孤独》第7章Part 4

世纪文学经典:《百年孤独》第7章Part 4  

"Look where this fellow turned up
" the captain said. "It's Gregorio Stevenson."
At dawn
after a summary court martial
Arcadio was shot against the wall of the cemetery. In the last o hours of his life he did not manage to understand why the fear that had tormented him since childhood had disappeared. Impassive. without even worrying about making a show of his recent bravery
he listened to the interminable charges of the accusation. He thought about úrsula
who at that hour must have been under the chestnut tree having coffee with José Arcadio Buendía. He thought about his eight-month-old daugh-ter
who still had no name
and about the child who was going to be born in August. He thought about Santa Sofía de la Piedad
whom he had left the night before salting down a deer for next day's lunch
and he missed her hair pouring over her shoulders and her eyelashes
which looked as if they were artificial. He thought about his people without sentimentality
with a strict dosing of his accounts with life
beginning to understand how much he really loved the people he hated most. The president of the court-martial began his final speech when Arcadio realized that o hours had passed. "Even if the proven charges did not have merit enough
" the president was saying
"the irresponsible and criminal boldness with which the accused drove his subordinates on to a useless death would be enough to deserve capital punishment." In the shattered schoolhouse where for the first time he had felt the security of power
a few feet from the room where he had e to know the uncertainty of love
Arcadio found the formality of death ridiculous. Death really did not matter to him but life did
and therefore the sensation he felt when they gave their decision was not a feeling of fear but of nostalgia. He did not speak until they asked him for his last request.
"Tell my wife
" he answered in a well-modulated voice
"to give the girl the name of úrsula." He paused and said it again: "úrsula
like her grandmother. And tell her also that if the child that is to be born is a boy
they should name him José Arcadio
not for his uncle
but for his grandfather."
Before they took him to the execution wall Father Nicanor tried to attend him. "I have nothing to repent
" Arcadio said
and he put himself under the orders of the squad after drinking a cup of black coffee. The leader of the squad
a specialist in summary executions
had a name that had much more about it than chance: Captain Roque Carnicero
which meant butcher. On the way to the cemetery
under the persistent drizzle
Arcadio saw that a radiant Wednesday was breaking out on the horizon. His nostalgia disappeared with the mist and left an immense curiosity in its place. Only when they ordered him to put his back to the wall did Arcadio see Rebeca
with wet hair and a pink flowered dress
opening wide the door. He made an effort to get her to recognize him. And Rebeca did take a casual look toward the wall and was paralyzed with stupor
barely able to react and wave goodbye to Arcadio. Arcadio answered her the same way. At that instant the smoking mouths of the rifles were aimed at him and letter by letter he heard the encyclicals that Melquíades had chanted and he heard the lost steps of Santa Sofía de la Piedad
a virgin
in the classroom
and in his nose he felt the same icy hardness that had drawn his attention in the nostrils of the corpse of Remedios. "Oh
God damn it!" he managed to think. "I fot to say that if it was a girl they should name her Remedios." Then
all accumulated in the rip of a claw
he felt again all the terror that had tormented him in his life. The captain gave the order to fire. Arcadio barely had time to put out his chest and raise his head
not understanding where the hot liquid that burned his thighs was pouring from.
"Bastards!" he shouted. "Long live the Liberal Party!"