百年孤独为什么值得看 世纪文学经典:《百年孤独》第9章Part 1

世纪文学经典:《百年孤独》第9章Part 1  

COLONEL GERINELDO MáRQUEZ was the first to perceive the emptiness of the war. In his position as civil and military leader of Macondo he would have telegraphic conversations ice a week with Colonel Aure-liano Buendía. At first those exchanges would determine the course of a flesh-and-blood war
the perfectly defined outlines of which told them at any moment the exact spot -where it was and the prediction of its future direction. Although he never let himself be pulled into the area of confidences
not even by his closest friends
Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía still had at that time the familiar tone that made it possible to identify him at the other end of the wire. Many times he would prolong the talk beyond the expected limit and let them drift into ments of a domestic nature. Little by little
however
and as the war became more intense and widespread
his image was fading away into a universe of unreality. The characteristics of his speech were more and more uncertain
and they cam together and bined to form words that were gradually losing all meaning. Colonel Gerineldo Márquez limited himself then to just listening
burdened by the impression that he was in telegraphic contact with a stranger from another world.
"I understand
Aureli-ano
" he would conclude on the key. "Long live the Liberal party!"
He finally lost all contact with the war. What in other times had been a real activity
an irresistible passion of his youth
became a remote point of reference for him: an emptiness. His only refuge was Amaranta's sewing room. He would visit her every afternoon. He liked to watch her hands as she curled frothy petticoat cloth in the machine that was kept in motion by Remedios the Beauty. They spent many hours without speaking
content with their reciprocal pany
but while Amaranta was inwardly pleased in keeping the fire of his devotion alive
he was unaware of the secret designs of that indecipherable heart. When the news of his return reached her
Amaranta had been smothered by anxiety. But when she saw him enter the house in the middle of Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía's noisy escort and she saw how he had been mistreated by the rigors of exile
made old by age and oblivion
dirty with sweat and dust
smelling like a herd
ugly
with his left arm in a sling
she felt faint with disillusionment. "My God
" she thought. "This wasn't the person I was waiting for." On the following day
however
he came back to the house shaved and clean
with his mustache perfumed with lavender water and without the bloody sling. He brought her a prayerbook bound in mother-of-pearl.
"How strange men are
" she said
because she could not think of anything else to say. "They spend their lives fighting against priests and then give prayerbooks as gifts."
From that time on
even during the most critical days of the war
he visited her every afternoon. Many times
when Remedios the Beauty was not present
it was he who turned the wheel on the sewing machine. Amaranta felt upset by the perseverance
the loyalty
the submissiveness of that man who was invested with so much authority and who nevertheless took off his sidearm in the living room so that he could go into the sewing room without weapons
But for four years he kept repeating his love and she would always find a way to reject him without hurting him
for even though she had not succeeded in loving him she could no longer live without him. Remedios the Beauty
who seemed indifferent to everything and who was thought to be mentally retarded
was not insensitive to so much devotion and she intervened in Colonel Gerineldo Márquez's favor. Amaranta suddenly discovered that the girl she had raised
who was just entering adolescence
was already the most beautiful creature that had even been seen in Macondo. She felt reborn in her heart the rancor that she had felt in other days for Rebeca
and begging God not to impel her into the extreme state of wishing her dead
she banished her from the sewing room. It was around that time that Colonel Gerineldo Márquez began to feel the boredom of the war. He summoned his reserves of persuasion
his broad and repressed tenderness
ready to give up for Amaranta a glory that had cost him the sacrifice of his best years. But he could not succeed in convincing her. One August afternoon
overe by the unbearable weight of her own obstinacy
Amaranta locked herself in her bedroom to weep over her solitude unto death after giving her final answer to her tenacious suitor:"Let's fet about each other forever
" she told him. "We're too old for this sort of thing now."
Colonel Gerineldo Márquez had a telegraphic call from Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía that afternoon. It was a routine conversation which was not going to bring about any break in the stagnant war. At the end
Colonel Gerineldo Márquez looked at the desolate streets
the crystal water on the almond trees
and he found himself lost in solitude.
"Aureli-ano
" he said sadly on the key
"it's raining in Macondo."