百年孤独这本书怎么样 世纪文学经典:《百年孤独》第14章Part2

世纪文学经典:《百年孤独》第14章Part2  

"Nothing
" Meme answered. "I was only now discovering how much I loved you both."
Amaranta was startled by the obvious burden of hate that the declaration carried. But Fernanda felt so moved that she thought she would go mad when Meme awoke at midnight with her head splitting with pain and drowning in vomited gall. She gave her a vial of castor oil
put presses on her stomach and ice cubes on her head
and she made her stay in bed for five days and follow the diet ordered by the new and outlandish French doctor
who after examining her for more than o hours reached the foggy conclusion that she had an ailment peculiar to women. Having lost her courage
in a miserable state of demoralization
Meme had no other recourse but to bear up under it. úrsula
pletely blind by then but still active and lucid
was the only one who guessed the exact diagnosis. "As far as I can see
" she thought
"that's the same thing that happens to drunken people." But she not only rejected the idea
she reproached herself for the frivolity of her thought. Aure-liano Segun-do felt a inge of conscience when he saw Meme's state of prostration and he promised himself to take better care of her in the future. That was how the relationship of jolly radeship was born beeen father and daughter
which freed him for a time from the bitter solitude of his revels and freed her from Fernanda's watchful eye without necessity of provoking the domestic crisis that seemed inevitable by then. At that time Aureli-ano Segun-do postponed any appointments in order to be with Meme
to take her to the movies or the circus
and he spent the greater part of his idle time with her. In recent times his annoyance with the absurd obesity that prevented him from tying his shoes and his abusive satisfaction with all manner of appetites had began to sour his character. The discovery of his daughter restored his former joviality and the pleasure of being with her was slowly leading him away from dissipation. Meme was entering a fruitful age. She was not beautiful
as Amaranta had never been
but on the other hand she was pleasant
unplicated
and she had the virtue of making a good impression on people from the first moment. She had a modem spirit that wounded the antiquated sobriety and poorly disguised miserly heart of Fernanda
and that
on the other hand
Aureli-ano Segun-do took pleasure in developing. It was he who resolved to take her out of the bedroom she had occupied since childhood
where the fearful eyes of the saints still fed her adolescent terrors
and he furnished for her a room with a royal bed
a large dressing table
and velvet curtains
not realizing that he was producing a second version of Petra Cotes's room. He was so lavish with Meme that he did not even know how much money he gave her because she herself would take it out of his pockets
and he kept abreast of every kind of new beauty aid that arrived in the missary of the banana pany. Meme's room became filled with pumice-stone cushions to polish her nails with
hair curlers
tooth-brushes
drops to make her eyes languid
and so many and such new cosmetics and artifacts of beauty that every time Fernanda went into the room she was scan-dalized by the idea that her daughter's dressing table must have been the same as those of the French ma-trons. Nevertheless Fernanda divided her time in those days beeen little Amaranta úrsula
who was mischievous and sickly
and a touching correspondence with the invisible physicians. So that when she noticed the plicity beeen father and daughter the only promise she extracted from Aureli-ano Segun-do was that he would never take Meme to Petra Cotes's house. It was a meaningless demand because the concubine was so annoyed with the radeship beeen her lover and his daughter that she did not want anything to do with her. Petra was tormented by an unknown fear
as if instinct were telling her that Meme
by just wanting it
could succeed in what Fernanda had been unable to do: deprive her of a love that by then she considered assured until death. For the first time Aureli-ano Segun-do had to tolerate the harsh expressions and the violent tirades of his concubine
and he was even afraid that his wandering trunks would make the return journey to his wife's house. That did not happen. No one knew a man better than Petra Cotes knew her lover and she knew that the trunks would remain where they had been sent because if Aureli-ano Segun-do detested anything it was plicating his life with modifications and changes. So the trunks stayed where they were and Petra Cotes set about reconquering the husband by sharpening the only weapons that his daughter could not use on him. It too was an unnecessary effort because Meme had no desire to intervene in her father's affairs and if she had
it would certainly have been in favor of the concubine. She had no time to bother anybody. She herself swept her room and made her bed
as the nuns had taught her. In the morning she took care of her clothes
sewing on the porch or using Amaranta's old pedal machine. While the others were taking their siestas she would practice the clavichord for o hours
knowing that the daily sacrifice would keep Fernanda calm. For the same reason she continued giving concerts at church fairs and school parties
even though the requests were less and less frequent. At nightfall she would fix herself up
put on one of her simple dresses and her stiff high shoes
and if she had nothing to do with her father she would go to the homes of her girl friends
where she would stay until dinnertime. It was rare that Aureli-ano Segun-do would not call for her then to take her to the movies.
Among Meme's friends there were three young American girls who broke through the electrified chicken fence barrier and made friends with girls from Macon-do. One of them was Patricia Brown. Grateful for the hospitality of Aureli-ano Segun-do
Mr. Brown opened the doors of his house to Meme and invited her to the Saturday dances
which were the only ones where gringos and natives mingled. When Fernanda found out about it she fot about Amaranta úrsula and the invisible doctors for a moment and became very melodramatic. "Just think
" she said to Meme
"what the colonel must be thinking in his grave." She sought
of course
the backing of úrsula. But the blind old woman
contrary to what everyone expected
saw nothing reproachable in Meme's going to the dances and making friends with American girls her own age as long as she kept her strict habits and was not converted to the Protestant religion. Meme sensed the thought of her great-great-grandmother very well and the day after the dances she would get up earlier than usual to go to mass. Fernanda's opposition lasted until the day when Meme broke down her resistance with the news that the Americans wanted to hear her play the clavichord. The instrument was taken out of the house again and carried to Mr. Brown's
where the young concert artist really did receive very sincere applause and the most enthusiastic congratulations. From then on she was invited not only to the dances but also to the Sunday swim parties in the pool and to lunch once a week. Meme learned to swim like a professional
to play tennis
and to eat Virginia ham with slices of pineapple. Among dances
swimming
and tennis she soon found herself getting involved in the English language. Aureli-ano Segun-do was so enthusiastic over the progress of his daughter that from a traveling salesman he bought a six-volume English encyclopedia with many color prints which Meme read in her spare time. The reading occupied the attention that she had formerly given to gossip about sweethearts and the experimental retreats that she would go through with her girl friends
not because it was imposed as discipline but because she had lost all interest by then in talking about mysteries that were in the public domain. She looked back on the drunken episode as an infantile adventure and it seemed so funny to her that she told Aureli-ano Segun-do about it and he thought it was more amusing than she did. "If your mother only knew
" he told her
doubling up with laughter
as he always said when he told her something in confidence. He had made her promise that she would let him know about her first love affair with the same confidence
and Meme told him that she liked a red-headed American boy who had e to spend his vacation with his parents. "What do you know
" Aureli-ano Segun-do said
laughing. "If your mother only knew." But Meme also told him that the boy had gone back to his country and had disappeared from sight. The maturity of her judgment ensured peace in the family. Aureli-ano Segun-do then devoted more time to Petra Cotes
and although his body and soul no longer permitted him the debauches of days gone by
he lost no chance to arrange them and to dig out the accordion
which by then had some keys held in place by shoelaces. At home
Amaranta was weaving her interminable shroud and úrsula dragged about in her decrepitude through the depths of the shadows where the only thing that was still visible was the ghost of José Arcadio Buendía under the chestnut tree. Fernanda consolidated her authority. Her monthly letters to her son José Arcadio at that time did not carry a string of lies and she hid from him only her correspondence with the invisible doctors
who had diagnosed a benign tumor in her large intestine and were preparing her for a telepathic operation.