世紀文學經典:《百年孤獨》第9章Part 2

There was a long silence on the line. Suddenly the apparatus jumped with the pitiless letters from Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía.
"Don't be a jackass, Gerineldo," the signals said. "It's natural for it to be raining in August."
They had not seen each other for such a long time that Colonel Gerineldo Márquez was upset by the aggressiveness of the reaction. Two months later, however, when Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía returned to Macondo, his upset was changed to stupefaction. Even úrsula was surprised at how much he had changed. He came with no noise, no escort, wrapped in a cloak in spite of the heat, and with three mistresses, whom he installed in the same house, where he spent most of his time lying in a hammock. He scarcely read the telegraphic dispatches that reported routine operations. On one occasion Colonel Gerineldo Márquez asked him for instructions for the evacuation of a spot on the border where there was a danger that the conflict would become an international affair.
"Don't bother me with trifles," he ordered him. "Consult Divine Providence."
It was perhaps the most critical moment of the war. The Liberal landowners, who had supported the revolution in the beginning, had made secret alliances with the Conservative landowners in order to stop the revision of property titles. The politicians who supplied funds for the war from exile had Publicly repudiated the drastic aims of Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía, but even that withdrawal of authorization did not seem to bother him. He had not returned to reading his poetry, which filled more than five volumes and lay forgotten at the bottom of his trunk. At night or at siesta time he would call one of his women to his hammock and obtain a rudimentary satisfaction from her, and then he would sleep like a stone that was not concerned by the slightest indication of worry. Only he knew at that time that his confused heart was condemned to uncertainty forever. At first, intoxicated by the glory of his return, by his remarkable victories, he had peeped into the abyss of greatness. He took pleasure in keeping by his right hand the Duke of Marlborough, his great teacher in the art of war, whose attire of skins and tiger claws aroused the respect of adults and the awe of children. It was then that he decided that no human being, not even úrsula, could come closer to him than ten feet. In the center of the chalk circle that his aides would draw wherever he stopped, and which only he could enter, he would decide with brief orders that had no appeal the fate of the world. The first time that he was in Manaure after the shooting of General Moncada, he hastened to fulfill his victim's last wish and the widow took the glasses, the medal, the watch, and the ring, but she would not let him in the door.
"You can't come in, colonel," she told him. "You may be in command of your war, but I'm in command of my house."
Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía did not show any sign of anger, but his spirit only calmed down when his bodyguard had sacked the widow's house and reduced it to ashes. "Watch out for your heart, Aureli-ano," Colonel Gerineldo Márquez would say to him then. "You're rotting alive." About that time he called together a second assembly of the principal rebel commanders. He found all types: idealists, ambitious people, adventurers, those with social resentments, even common criminals. There was even a former Conservative functionary who had taken refuge in the revolt to escape a judgment for -misappropriation of funds. Many of them did not even know why they were fighting in the midst of that motley crowd, whose differences of values were on the verge of causing an internal explosion, one gloomy authority stood out: General Te6filo Vargas. He was a full-blooded Indian, untamed, illiterate, and endowed with quiet wiles and a messianic vocation that aroused a demented fanaticism in his men. Colonel Aureli-ano Buendíacalled the meeting with the aim of unifying the rebel command against the maneuvers of the politicians. General Teófilo Vargas came forward with his intentions: in a few hours he shattered the coalition of better-qualified commanders and took charge of the main command. "He's a wild beast worth watching," Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía told his officers. "That man is more dangerous to us than the Minister of War." Then a very young captain who had always been outstanding for his timidity raised a cautious index finger.
"It's quite simple, colonel," he proposed. "He has to be killed."
Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía was not alarmed by the coldness of the proposition but by the way in which, by a fraction of a second, it had anticipated his own thoughts.
"Don't expect me to give an order like that," he said.

線路上沉寂了很久。然後，電話機裏突然發出奧雷連諾上校生硬的話語。
“別大驚小怪，格林列爾多，”對方說，“八月間下雨是正常的。”
很久沒有看見朋友的格林列爾多·馬克斯上校，對異常生硬的回答感到不安。可是過了兩個月，奧雷連諾上校回到馬孔多的時候，這種模糊的不安變成了驚異，幾乎變成了恐懼。對於兒子的變化，烏蘇娜也覺得吃驚。他是不聲不響回來的，沒有侍從，儘管天氣很熱，還用斗篷裹着身子；隨同他來的是三個情婦，他讓她們一塊兒住在一間屋子裏，大部分時間他都躺在一個吊牀上。他難得抽出時間來看戰情電報和報告。有一次，格林列爾多。 馬克斯上校前來向他請示一個邊境城鎮的撤退問題，因爲起義部隊繼續留在那裏可能引起國際糾紛。
“別拿雞毛蒜皮的事來打擾我啦，”奧雷連諾上校回答他。“你去請教上帝吧。”
這大概是戰爭的緊要關頭。最初支持革命的自由派地主，爲了阻撓土地所有權的重新審查，跟保守派地主簽訂了祕密協議。在國外爲戰爭提供經費的那些政客，公開譴責奧雷連諾上校採取的激烈措施，然而這種作法似乎也沒有使他擔心。他再也不讀自己的詩了，這些詩約有五卷，現在放在箱子底兒給忘記了。夜晚或者午休時，他都把一個情婦叫到他的吊牀上來，從她身上得到一點兒快樂，然後就睡得象石頭一樣，沒有一點憂慮的跡象。那時只有他一個人知道，他心煩意亂，永遠失去了信心。最初，他陶醉於凱旋迴國和輝煌的勝利，俯臨“偉大”的深淵。他喜歡坐在馬博羅①公爵的肖像右方——這是他在戰爭藝術上的偉大導師，此人的虎皮衣服曾引起成年人的讚賞和孩子們的驚訝。正是那時，他決定不讓任何人（甚至烏蘇娜）接近他三米遠。不管他到了哪兒，他的副官都用粉筆在地上畫一個圓圈，他站在圓圈中心（只有他一個人可以站進圓圈），用簡短而果斷的命令決定世界的命運。槍決蒙卡達將軍之後，他剛一到達馬諾爾，就趕忙去滿足受害者的最後願望。寡婦收下了眼鏡、手錶、戒指和女神像，可是不許他跨進門檻。
“你不能進來，上校，”她說。“你可以指揮你的戰爭，可是我的家是由我指揮的。”
奧雷連諾上校絲毫沒有表示自己的惱怒，但在他的隨身衛隊搶劫和燒燬了寡婦的房子之後，他的心才平靜下來。“提防你的心吧，奧雷連諾，”格林列爾多·馬克斯當時警告他。“你在活活地爛掉。”大約這個時候，奧雷連諾上校召開了第二次起義部隊指揮官會議。到場的有各式各樣的人：空想家、野心家、冒險家、社會渣滓、甚至一般罪犯。其中有一個保守黨官員是由於逃避盜用公款的懲罰才參加革命的。許多人根本就不知道他們爲什麼戰鬥，在這羣形形色色的人中間，不同的信念將會引起內部爆炸，但最惹人注目的卻是一個陰沉沉的權勢人物——泰菲羅。瓦加斯將軍。這是一個純血統的印第安人，粗野、無知，具有詭譎伎倆和預見才能，善於把他的部下變成極端的宗教狂。奧雷連諾上校打算在會議上把起義部隊的指揮統一起來，反對政客們的鬼把戲。可是泰菲羅·瓦加斯將軍破壞了他的計劃：在幾小時內，就瓦解了優秀指揮官的聯合，攫取了總指揮權……這是一頭值得注意的野獸，“奧雷連諾上校向自己的軍官們說。”對咱們來說，這樣的人比政府的陸軍部長還危險。“於是，平常以膽怯著稱的一個上尉小心地舉起了食指。
“這很簡單，上校，”他說。“應當把他殺死。”
剎那間，這個建議超過了他自己的想法，他感到不安的倒不是這個建議多麼殘忍，而是實現這個建議的方式。
“別指望我會發出這樣的命令，”他回答。