百年孤独这本书怎么样 世纪文学经典:《百年孤独》第17章Part6

世纪文学经典:《百年孤独》第17章Part6  

Two months later Amaranta ?rsula went to Brussels. Aureliano Segundo gave her not only the money from the special raffle
but also what he had managed to put aside over the previous months and what little he had received from the sale of the pianola
the clavichord
and other junk that had fallen into disrepair. According to his calculations
that sum would be enough for her studies
so that all that was lacking was the price of her fare back home. Fernanda was against the trip until the last moment
scandalized by the idea that Brussels was so close to Paris and its perdition
but she calmed down with the letter that Father Angel gave her addressed to a boardinghouse run by nuns for Catholic young ladies where Amaranta ?rsula promised to stay until her studies were pleted. Furthermore
the parish priest arranged for her to travel under the care of a group of Franciscan nuns who were going to Toledo
where they hoped to find dependable people to acpany her to Belgium. While the urgent correspondence that made the coordination possible went forward
Aureliano Segundo
aided by Petra Cates
prepared Amaranta ?rsula’s baggage. The night on which they were packing one of Fernanda’s bridal trunks
the things were so well anized that the schoolgirl knew by heart which were the suits and cloth slippers she could wear crossing the Atlantic and the blue cloth coat with copper buttons and the cordovan shoes she would wear when she landed. She also knew how to walk so as not to fall into the water as she went up the gangplank
that at no time was she to leave the pany of the nuns or leave her cabin except to eat
and that for no reason was she to answer the questions asked by people of any sex while they were at sea. She carried a small bottle with drops for seasickness and a notebook written by Father Angel in his own hand containing six prayers to be used against storms. Fernanda made her a canvas belt to keep her money in
and she would not have to take it off even to sleep. She tried to give her the chamberpot
washed out with lye and disinfected with alcohol
but Amaranta ?rsula refused it for fear that her schoolmates would make fun of her. A few months later
at the hour of his death
Aureliano Segundo would remember her as he had seen her for the last time as she tried unsuccessfully to lower the window of the second-class coach to hear Fernanda’s last piece of advice. She was wearing a pink silk dress with a corsage of artificial pansies pinned to her left shoulder
her cordovan shoes with buckles and low heels
and sateen stockings held up at the thighs with elastic garters. Her body was slim
her hair loose and long
and she had the lively eyes that ?rsula had had at her age and the way in which she said good-bye
without crying but without smiling either
revealed the same strength of character. Walking beside the coach as it picked up speed and holding Fernanda by the arm so that she would not stumble
Aureliano scarcely had time to wave at his daughter as she threw him a kiss with the tips of her fingers. The couple stood motionless under the scorching sun
looking at the train as it merged with the black strip of the horizon
linking arms for the first time since the day of their wedding.
On the ninth of August
before they received the first letter from Brussels
Jos?Arcadio Segundo was speaking to Aureliano in Melquíades?room and
without realizing it
he said:
“Always remember that they were more than three thousand and that they were thrown into the sea.?
Then he fell back on the parchments and died with his eyes open. At that same instant
in Fernanda’s bed
his in brother came to the end of the prolonged and terrible martyrdom of the steel crabs that were eating his throat away. One week previously he had returned home
without any voice
unable to breathe
and almost skin and bones
with his wandering trunks and his wastrel’s accordion
to fulfill the promise of dying beside his wife. Petra Cotes helped him pack his clothes and bade him farewell without shedding a tear
but she fot to give him the patent leather shoes that he wanted to wear in his coffin. So when she heard that he had died
she dressed in black
wrapped the shoes up in a newspaper
and asked Fernanda for permission to see the body. Fernanda would not let her through the door.
“Put yourself in my place
?Petra Cotes begged. “Imagine how much I must have loved him to put up with this humiliation.?
“There is no humiliation that a concubine does not deserve
?Fernanda replied. “So wait until another one of your men dies and put the shoes on him.?
In fulfillment of her promise
Santa Sofía de la Piedad cut the throat of Jos?Arcadio Segundo’s corpse with a kitchen knife to be sure that they would not bury him alive. The bodies were placed in identical coffins
and then it could be seen that once more in death they had bee as Identical as they had been until adolescence. Aureliano Segundo’s old carousing rades laid on his casket a wreath that had a purple ribbon with the words: Cease
cows
life is short. Fernanda was so indignant with such irreverence that she had the wreath thrown onto the trash heap. In the tumult of the last moment
the sad drunkards who carried them out of the house got the coffins mixed up and buried them in the wrong graves.