世紀文學經典:《百年孤獨》第12章Part3

Remedios the Beauty was the only one who was immune to the banana plague. She was becalmed in a magnificent adolescence, more and more impenetrable to formality, more and more indifferent to malice and suspicion, happy in her own world of simple realities. She did not understand why women complicated their lives with corsets and petticoats, so she sewed herself a coarse cassock that she simply put over her and without further difficulties resolved the problem of dress, without taking away the feeling of being naked, which according to her lights was the only decent way to be when at home. They bothered her so much to cut the rain of hair that already reached to her thighs and to make rolls with combs and braids with red ribbons that she simply shaved her head and used the hair to make wigs for the saints. The startling thing about her simplifying instinct was that the more she did away with fashion in a search for comfort and the more she passed over conventions as she obeyed spontaneity, the more disturbingher incredible beauty became and the more provocative she became to men. When the sons of Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía were in Macon-do for the first time, úrsula remembered that in their veins they bore the same blood as her great-granddaughter and she shuddered with a forgotten fright. "Keep your eyes wide open," she warned her. "With any of them your children will come out with the tail of a pig." The girl paid such little attention to the warning that she dressed up as a man and rolled around in the sand in order to climb the greased pole, and she was at the point of bringing on a tragedy among the seventeen cousins, who were driven mad by the unbearable spectacle. That was why none of them slept at the house when they visited the town and the four who had stayed lived in rented rooms at úrsula's insistence. Remedios the Beauty, however, would have died laughing if she had known about that precaution. Until her last moment on earth she was unaware that her irreparable fate as a disturbing woman was a daily disaster. Every time she appeared in the dining room, against úrsula's orders, she caused a panic of exasperation among the outsiders. It was all too evident that she was completely naked underneath her crude nightshirt and no one could understand that her shaved and perfect skull was not some kind of challenge, and that the boldness with which she uncovered her thighs to cool off was not a criminal provocation, nor was her pleasure when she sucked her fingers after. eating. What no member of the family ever knew was that the strangers did not take long to realize that Remedios the Beauty gave off a breath of perturbation, a tormenting breeze that was still perceptible several hours after she had passed by. Men expert in the disturbances of love, experienced all over the world, stated that they had never suffered an anxiety similar to the one produced by the natural smell of Remedios the Beauty. On the porch with the begonias, in the parlor, in any place in the house, it was possible to point out the exactplace where she had been and the time that had passed since she had left it. It was a definite, unmistakable trace that no one in the family could distinguish because it had been incorporated into the daily odors for a long time, but it was one that the outsiders identified immediately. They were the only ones, therefore, who understood how the young commander of the guard had died of love and how a gentleman from a faraway land had been plunged into desperation. Unaware of the restless circle in which she moved, of the unbearable state of intimate calamity that she provoked as she passed by, Remedios the Beauty treated the men without the least bit of malice and in the end upset them with her innocent complaisance. When úrsula succeeded in imposing the command that she eat with Amaranta in the kitchen so that the outsiders would not see her, she felt more comfortable, because, after all, she was beyond all discipline. In reality, it made no difference to her where she ate, and not at regular hours but according to the whims of her appetite. Sometimes she would get up to have lunch at three in the morning, sleep all day long, and she spent several months with her timetable all in disarray until some casual incident would bring her back into the order of things. When things were going better she would get up at eleven o'clock in the morning and shut herself up until two o'clock, completely nude, in the bathroom, killing scorpions as she came out of her dense and prolonged sleep. Then she would throw water from the cistern over herself with a gourd. It was an act so prolonged, so meticulous, so rich in ceremonial aspects that one who did not know her well would have thought that she was given over to the deserved adoration of her own body. For her, however, that solitary rite lacked all sensuality and was simply a way of passing the time until she was hungry. One day, as she began to bathe herself, a stranger lifted a tile from the roof and was breathless at the tremendous spectacle of her nudity. She saw his desolate eyes through the broken tiles and had no reaction of shame but rather one of alarm.
"Be careful," she exclaimed. "You'll fall."
"I just wanted to see you," the foreigner murmured.

俏姑娘雷麥黛絲是唯一沒有染上“香蕉熱”的人。她彷彿停留在美妙的青春期，越來越討厭各種陳規，越來越不在乎別人的嫌厭和懷疑，只在自己簡單的現實世界裏尋求樂趣。她不明白娘兒們爲什麼要用乳罩和裙子把自己的生活搞得那麼複雜，就拿粗麻布縫了一件肥大的衣服，直接從頭上套下去，一勞永逸地解決了穿衣服的問題，這樣既穿了衣服，又覺得自己是裸體的，因爲她認爲裸體狀態在家庭環境裏是唯一合適的。家裏的人總是勸她把長及大腿的蓬鬆頭髮剪短一些，編成辮子，別上篦子，紮上紅色絲帶；她聽了膩煩，乾脆剃光了頭，把自己的頭髮做成了聖像的假髮。她下意識地喜歡簡單化，但最奇怪的是，她越擺脫時髦、尋求舒服，越堅決反對陳規、順從自由愛好，她那驚人之美就越動人，她對男人就越有吸引力。奧雷連諾上校的兒子們第一次來到馬孔多的時候，烏蘇娜想到他們的血管裏流着跟曾孫女相同的血，就象從前那樣害怕得發抖。“千萬小心啊，”她警告俏姑娘雷麥黛絲。“跟他們當中的任何一個人瞎來，你的孩子都會有豬尾巴。”俏姑娘雷麥黛絲不太重視曾祖母的話，很快穿上男人的衣服，在沙地上打了打滾，想爬上抹了油脂的竿子，這幾乎成了十二個親戚之間發生悲劇的緣由，因爲他們都給這種忍受不了的景象弄瘋了。正由於這一點，他們來到的時候，烏蘇娜不讓他們任何一個在家裏過夜，而留居馬孔多的那四個呢，按照她的吩咐，在旁邊租了幾個房間。如果有人向俏姑娘雷麥黛絲說起這些預防措施，她大概是會笑死的。直到她在世上的最後一刻，她始終都不知道命運使她成了一個擾亂男人安寧的女人，猶如尋常的天災似的。每一次，她違背烏蘇娜的禁令，出現在飯廳裏的時候，外國人中間都會發生騷亂。一切都太顯眼了，除了一件肥大的粗麻布衣服，俏姑娘雷麥黛絲是赤裸裸的，而且誰也不能相信，她那完美的光頭不是一種挑釁，就象她露出大腿來乘涼的那種無恥樣兒和飯後舔手指的快活勁兒不是罪惡的挑逗。布恩蒂亞家中沒有一個人料到，外國人很快就已發覺：俏姑娘雷麥黛絲身上發出一種引起不安的氣味，令人頭暈的氣味，在她離開之後，這些氣味還會在空氣中停留幾個小時。在世界各地經歷過情場痛苦的男人認爲，俏姑娘雷麥黛絲的天生氣味在他們身上激起的慾望，他們從前是不曾感到過的。在秋海棠長廊上，在客廳裏，在房中的任何一個角落裏，他們經常能夠準確地指出俏姑娘雷麥黛絲呆過的地方，斷定她離開之後過了多少時間，她在空氣中留下了清楚的痕跡，這種痕跡跟任何東西都不會相混：家裏的人誰也沒有覺出它來，因爲它早已成了家中日常氣味中的一部分，可是外人立刻就把它嗅出來了。所以只有他們明白，那個年輕的軍官爲什麼會死於愛情，而從遠地來的那個紳士爲什麼會陷於絕望。俏姑娘雷麥黛絲由於不知道自己身上有一種引起不安的自然力量，她在場時就會激起男人心中難以忍受的慌亂感覺，所以她對待他們是沒有一點虛假的，她的天真熱情終於弄得他們神魂顛倒起來。烏蘇娜爲了不讓外國人看見自己的曾孫女，要她跟阿瑪蘭塔一起在廚房裏吃飯，這一點甚至使她感到高興，因爲她畢竟用不着服從什麼規矩了。其實，什麼時候在哪幾吃飯，她是不在乎的，她寧願不按規定的時間吃飯，想吃就吃。有時，她會忽然在清晨三點起來吃點東西，然後一直睡到傍晚，連續幾個月打亂作息時間表，直到最後某種意外的情況才使她重新遵守家中規定的制度。然而，即使情況有了好轉，她也早上十一點起牀，一絲不掛地在浴室裏呆到下午兩點，一面打蠍子，一面從深沉和長久的迷夢中逐漸清醒過來。然後，她才用水瓢從貯水器裏舀起水來，開始沖洗身子。這種長時間的、細緻的程序，夾了許多美妙的動作，不大瞭解俏姑娘雷麥黛絲的人可能以爲她在理所當然地欣賞自己的身姿。然而，實際上，這些奇妙的動作沒有任何意義，只是俏姑娘雷麥黛絲吃飯之前消磨時光的辦法。有一次，她剛開始沖洗身子，就有個陌生人在屋頂上揭開一塊瓦：他一瞅見俏姑娘雷麥黛絲赤身露體的驚人景象，連氣都喘不過來人她在瓦片之間發現了他那淒涼的眼睛，並不害臊，而是不安。
“當心，”她驚叫一聲。“你會掉下來的。”
“我光想瞧瞧你，”陌生人咕嚕說。