百年孤独这本书怎么样 世纪文学经典:《百年孤独》第5章Part 8

世纪文学经典:《百年孤独》第5章Part 8  

That opinion
which úrsula understood only some months later
was the only sincere one that Aureliano could express at that moment
not only with respect to marriage
but to anything that was not war.
He himself
facing a firing squad
would not understand too well the concatenation of the series of subtle but irrevocable accidents that brought him to that point. The death of Remedios had not produced the despair that he had feared. It was
rather
a dull feeling of rage that grades ally dissolved in a solitary and passive frustration similar to the one he had felt during the time he was resigned to living without a woman. He plunged into his work again
but he kept up the custom of playing dominoes with his father-in-law. In a house bound up in mourning
the nightly conversations consolidated the friendship beeen the o men. "Get married again. Aurelito
" his father-in-law would tell him. "I have six daughters for you to choose from." On one occasion on the eve of the elections
Don Apolinar Moscote returned from one of his frequent trips worried about the political situation in the country. The Liberals were determined to go to war. Since Aureliano at that time had very confused notions about the difference beeen Conservatives and Liberals
his father-in-law gave him some schematic lessons. The Liberals
he said
were Freemasons
bad people
wanting to hang priests
to institute civil marriage and divorce
to recognize the rights of illegitimate children as equal to those of legitimate ones
and to cut the country up into a federal system that would take power away from the supreme authority. The Conservatives
on the other hand
who had received their power directly from God
proposed the establishment of public order and family morality. They were the defenders of the faith of Christ
of the principle of authority
and were not prepared to permit the country to be broken down into autonomous entities. Because of his humanitarian feelings Aureliano sympathized with the Liberal attitude with respect to the rights of natural children
but in any case
he could not understand how people arrived at the extreme of waging war over things that could not be touched with the hand. It seemed an exaggeration to him that for the elections his father-in--law had them send six soldiers armed with rifles under the mand of a sergeant to a town with no political passions. They not only arrived
but they went from house to house confiscating hunting weapons
machetes
and even kitchen knives before they distributed among males over enty-one the blue ballots with the names of the Conservative candidates and the red ballots with the names of the Liberal candidates. On the eve of the elections Don Apolinar Moscote himself read a decree that prohibited the sale of alcoholic beverages and the gathering together of more than three people who were not of the same family. The elections took place without incident. At eight o'clock on Sunday morning a wooden ballot box was set up in the square
which was watched over by the six soldiers. The voting was absolutely free
as Aureliano himself was able to attest since he spent almost the entire day with his father-in-law seeing that no one voted more than once. At four in the afternoon a roll of drums in the square announced the closing of the polls and Don Apolinar Moscote sealed the ballot box with a label crossed by his signature. That night
while he played dominoes with Aureliano
he ordered the sergeant to break the seal in order to count the votes. There were almost as many red ballots as blue
but the sergeant left only ten red ones and made up the difference with blue ones. Then they sealed the box again with a new label and the first thing on the following day it was taken to the capital of the province. "The Liberals will go to war
" Aureliano said. Don Apolinar concentrated on his domino pieces. "If you're saying that because of the switch in ballots
they won't
" he said. "We left a few red ones in so there won't be any plaints." Aureliano understood the disadvantages of being in the opposition. "If I were a Liberal
" he said
"I'd go to war because of those ballots." His father-in-law looked at him over his glasses.
"Come now
Aurelito
" he said
"if you were a Liberal
even though you're my son-in-law
you wouldn't have seen the switching of the ballots."
What really caused indignation in the town was. not the results of the elections but the fact that the soldiers had not returned the weapons. A group of women spoke with Aureliano so that he could obtain the return of their kitchen knives from his father-in-law. Don Apolinar Moscote explained to him
in strictest confidence
that the soldiers had taken the weapons off as proof that the Liberals were preparing for war. The cynicism of the remark alarmed him. He said nothing
but on a certain night when Gerineldo Márquez and Magnífico Visbal were speaking with some other friends about the incident of the knives
they asked him if he was a Liberal or a Conservative. Aureliano did not hesitate.
"If I have to be something I'll be a Liberal
" he said
"because the Conservatives are tricky."