百年孤独为什么值得看 世纪文学经典:《百年孤独》第3章Part 8

世纪文学经典:《百年孤独》第3章Part 8  

"The magistrate
" úrsula answered disconsolately. They say he's an authority sent by the government."
Don Apolinar Moscote
the magistrate
had arrived in Macondo very quietly. He put up at the Hotel Jacob--built by one of the first Arabs who came to swap knickknacks for macaws-and on the following day he rented a small room with a door on the street o blocks away from the Buendía house. He set up a table and a chair that he had bought from Jacob
nailed up on the wall the shield of the republic that he had brought with him
and on the door he painted the sign: Magistrate. His first order was for all the houses to be painted blue in celebration of the anniversary of national independence. José Arcadio Buendía
with the copy of the order in his hand
found him taking his nap in a hammock he had set up in the narrow office. "Did you write this paper?" he asked him. Don Apolinar Moscote
a mature man
timid
with a ruddy plexion
said yes. "By what right?" José Arcadio Buendía asked again. Don Apolinar Moscote picked up a paper from the drawer of the table and showed it to him. "I have been named magistrate of this town." José Arcadio Buendía did not even look at the appointment.
"In this town we do not give orders with pieces of paper
" he said without losing his calm. "And so that you know it once and for all
we don't need any judge here because there's nothing that needs judging."
Facing Don Apolinar Moscote
still without raising his voice
he gave a detailed account of how they had founded the village
of how they had distributed the land
opened the roads
and introduced the improvements that necessity required without having bothered the government and without anyone having bothered them. "We are so peaceful that none of us has died even of a natural death
" he said. "You can see that we still don't have any cemetery." No once was upset that the government had not helped them. On the contrary
they were happy that up until then it had let them grow in peace
and he hoped that it would continue leaving them that way
because they had not founded a town so that the first upstart who came along would tell them what to do. Don Apolinar had put on his denim jacket
white like his trousers
without losing at any moment the elegance of his gestures.
"So that if you want to stay here like any other ordinary citizen
you're quite wele
" José Arcadio Buendía concluded. "But if you've e to cause disorder by making the people paint their houses blue
you can pick up your junk and go back where you came from. Because my house is going to be white
white
like a dove."
Don Apolinar Moscote turned pale. He took a step backward and tightened his jaws as he said with a certain affliction:
"I must warn you that I'm armed."