百年孤独这本书怎么样 世纪文学经典:《百年孤独》第18章Part2

世纪文学经典:《百年孤独》第18章Part2  

For Santa Sofía de la Piedad the reduction in the number of inhabitants of the house should have meant the rest she deserved after more than half a century of work. Never a lament had been heard from that stealthy
imperable woman who had sown in the family the angelic seed of Remedios the Beauty and the mysterious solemnity of Jos?Arcadio Segundo; who dedicated a whole life of solitude and diligence to the rearing of children although she could barely remember whether they were her children or grandchildren
and who took care of Aureliano as if he had e out of her womb
not knowing herself that she was his great-grandmother. Only in a house like that was it conceivable for her always to sleep on a mat she laid out on the pantry floor in the midst of the nocturnal noise of the rats
and without telling anyone that one night she had awakened with the frightened feeling that someone was looking at her in the darkness and that it was a poisonous snake crawling over her stomach. She knew that if she had told ?rsula
the latter would have made her sleep in her own bed
but those were times when no one was aware of anything unless it was shouted on the porch
because with the bustle of the bakery
the surprises of the war
the care of the children
there was not much room for thinking about other peoples happiness. Petra Cotes whom she had never seen
was the only one who remembered her. She saw to it that she had a good pair of shoes for street wear
that she always had clothing
even during the times when the raffles were working only through some miracle. When Fernanda arrived at the house she had good reason to think that she was an ageless servant
and even though she heard it said several times that she was her husband’s mother it was so incredible that it took her longer to discover it than to fet it. Santa Sofía de la Piedad never seemed bothered by that lowly position. On the contrary
one had the impression that she liked to stay in the corners
without a pause
without a plaint
keeping cleanand in order the immense house that she had lived in ever since adolescence and that
especially during the time of the banana pany
was more like a barracks than a home. But when ?rsula died the superhuman diligence of Santa Sofía de la Piedad
her tremendous capacity for work
began to fall apart. It was not only that she was old and exhausted
but overnight the house had plunged into a crisis of senility. A soft moss grew up the walls. When there was no longer a bare spot in the courtyard
the weeds broke through the cement of the porch
breaking it like glass
and out of the cracks grew the same yellow flowers that ?rsula had found in the glass with Melquíades?false teeth a century before. With neither the time nor the resources to halt the challenge of nature
Santa Sofía de la Piedad spent the day in the bedrooms driving out the lizards who would return at night. One morning she saw that the red ants had left the undermined foundations
crossed the garden
climbed up the railing
where the begoniashad taken on an earthen color
and had perated into the heart of the house. She first tried to kill them with a broom
then with insecticides
and finally with lye
but the next day they were back in the same place
still passing by
tenacious and invincible. Fernanda
writing letters to her children
was not aware of the unchecked destructive attack. Santa Sofía de la Piedad continued struggling alone
fighting the weeds to stop them from getting into the kitchen
pulling from the walls the tassels of spider webs which were rebuilt in a few hours
scraping off the termites. But when she saw that Melquíades?room was also dusty and filled with cobwebs even though she swept and dusted three times a day
and that in spite of her furious cleaning it was threatened by the debris and the air of misery that had been foreseen only by Colonel Aureliano Buendía and the young officer
she realized that she was defeated. Then she put on her worn Sunday dress
some old shoes of ?rsula’s
and a pair of cotton stockings that Amaranta ?rsula had given her
and she made a bundle out of the o or three changes of clothing that she had left.
“I give up
?she said to Aureliano. “This is too much house for my poor bones.?
Aureliano asked her where she was going and she made a vague sign
as if she did not have the slightest idea of her destination. She tried to be more precise
however
saying that she was going to spend her last years with a first cousin who lived in Riohacha. It was not a likely explanation. Since the death of her parents she had not had contact with anyone in town or received letters or messages
nor had she been heard to speak of any relatives. Aureliano gave her fourteen little gold fishes because she was determined to leave with only what she had: one peso and enty-five cents. From the window of the room he saw her cross the courtyard with her bundle of clothing
dragging her feet and bent over by her years
and he saw her reach her hand through an opening in the main door and replace the bar after she had gone out. Nothing was ever heard of her again.