世紀文學經典:《百年孤獨》第3章Part 6

While Macondo was celebrating the recovery of its memory, José Arcadio Buendía and Melquíades dusted off their old friendship. The gypsy was inclined to stay in the town. He really had been through death, but he had returned because he could not bear the solitude. Repudiated by his tribe, having lost all of his supernatural faculties because of his faithfulness to life, he decided to take refuge in that corner of the world which had still not been discovered by death, dedicated to the operation of a daguerreotype laboratory. José Arcadio Buendía had never heard of that invention. But when he saw himself and his whole family fastened onto a sheet of iridescent metal for an eternity, he was mute with stupefaction. That was the date of the oxidized daguerreotype in which José Arcadio Buendía appeared with his bristly and graying hair, his card board collar attached to his shirt by a copper button, and an expression of startled solemnity, whom úrsula described, dying with laughter, as a "frightened general." José Arcadio Buendía was, in fact, frightened on that dear December morning when the daguerreotype was made, for he was thinking that people were slowly wearing away while his image would endure an a metallic plaque. Through a curious reversal of custom, it was úrsula who got that idea out of his head, as it was also she who forgot her ancient bitterness and decided that Melquíades would stay on in the house, although she never permitted them to make a daguerreotype of her because (according to her very words) she did not want to survive as a laughingstock for her grandchildren. That morning she dressed the children in their best clothes, powdered their faces, and gave a spoonful of marrow syrup to each one so that they would all remain absolutely motionless during the nearly two minutes in front of Melquíades fantastic camera. In the family daguerreotype, the only one that ever existed, Aureliano appeared dressed in black velvet between Amaranta and Rebeca. He had the same languor and the same clairvoyant look that he would have years later as he faced the firing squad. But he still had not sensed the premonition of his fate. He was an expert silversmith, praised all over the swampland for the delicacy of his work. In the workshop, which he shared with Melquíades' mad laboratory, he could barely be heard breathing. He seemed to be taking refuge in some other time, while his father and the gypsy with shouts interpreted the predictions of Nostradamus amidst a noise of flasks and trays and the disaster of spilled acids and silver bromide that was lost in the twists and turns it gave at every instant. That dedication to his work, the good judgment with which he directed his attention, had allowed Aureliano to earn in a short time more money than úrsula had with her delicious candy fauna, but everybody thought it strange that he was now a fullgrown man and had not known a woman. It was true that he had never had one.
Several months later saw the return of Francisco the Man, as ancient vagabond who was almost two hundred years old and who frequently passed through Macondo distributing songs that he composed himself. In them Francisco the Man told in great detail the things that had happened in the towns along his route, from Manaure to the edge of the swamp, so that if anyone had a message to send or an event to make public, he would pay him two cents to include it in his repertory. That was how úrsula learned of the death of her mother, as a simple consequence of listening to the songs in the hope that they would say something about her son José Arcadio. Francisco the Man, called that because he had once defeated the devil in a duel of improvisation, and whose real name no one knew, disappeared from Macondo during the insomnia plague and one night he appeared suddenly in Catarino's store. The whole town went to listen to him to find out what had happened in the world. On that occasion there arrived with him a woman who was so fat that four Indians had to carry her in a rocking chair, and an adolescent mulatto girl with a forlorn look who protected her from the sun with an umbrella. Aureliano went to Catarino's store that night. He found Francisco the Man, like a monolithic chameleon, sitting in the midst of a circle of bystanders. He was singing the news with his old, out-of-tune voice, accompanying himself with the same archaic accordion that Sir Walter Raleigh had given him in the Guianas and keeping time with his great walking feet that were cracked from saltpeter. In front of a door at the rear through which men were going and coming, the matron of the rocking chair was sitting and fanning herself in silence. Catarino, with a felt rose behind his ear, was selling the gathering mugs of fermented cane juice, and he took advantage of the occasion to go over to the men and put his hand on them where he should not have. Toward midnight the heat was unbearable. Aureliano listened to the news to the end without hearing anything that was of interest to his family. He was getting ready to go home when the matron signaled him with her hand.
"You go in too." she told him. "It only costs twenty cents."

馬孔多慶祝記憶復原的時候，霍·阿·布恩蒂亞和梅爾加德斯恢復了往日的友誼。吉卜賽人打算留居鎮上。他的確經歷過死亡，但是忍受不了孤獨，所以回到這兒來了。因爲他忠於現實生活，失去了自己的神奇本領，被他的部族拋棄，他就決定在死神還沒發現的這個角落裏得到一個寧靜的棲身之所，把自己獻給銀版照相術。霍·阿·布恩蒂亞根本沒有聽說過這樣的發明。可是，當他看見自己和全家的人永遠印在彩虹色的金屬版上時，他驚得說不出話了；霍·阿·布恩蒂亞有一張鏽了的照相底版就是這時的——蓬亂的灰色頭髮，銅妞扣扣上的漿領襯衫，一本正經的驚異表情。烏蘇娜笑得要死，認爲他象“嚇破了膽的將軍。”說真的，在那晴朗的十二月的早晨，梅爾加德斯拍照的時候，霍·阿·布恩蒂亞確實嚇壞了：他生怕人像移到金屬版上，人就會逐漸消瘦。不管多麼反常，烏蘇娜這一次卻爲科學辯護，竭力打消丈夫腦瓜裏的荒謬想法。他忘了一切舊怨，決定讓梅爾加德斯住在他們家裏。然而，烏蘇娜自己從不讓人給她拍照，因爲（據她自己的說法）她不願留下像來成爲子孫的笑柄。那天早晨，她給孩子們穿上好衣服，在他們臉上搽了粉，讓每人喝了一匙骨髓湯，使他們能在梅爾加德斯奇異的照相機前面凝然不動地站立幾乎兩分鐘。在這張“全家福”（這是過去留下的唯一的照片）上，奧雷連諾穿着黑色絲絨衣服，站在阿瑪蘭塔和雷貝卡之間，他的神情倦怠，目光明澈，多年以後，他就是這副神態站在行刑隊面前的。可是，照片上的青年當時還沒聽到命運的召喚，他只是一個能幹的首飾匠，由於工作認真，在整個沼澤地帶都受到尊重。他的作坊同時是梅爾加德斯的試驗室，這兒幾乎聽不到他的聲音。在瓶子的當嘟聲和盤子的敲擊聲中，在接連不斷的災難中：酸溢出來了，溴化銀浪費掉了，當他的父親和吉卜賽人大聲爭論納斯特拉達馬斯的預言時，奧雷連諾似乎呆在另一個世界裏。奧雷連諾忘我地工作，善於維護自己的利益，因此在短時期內，他掙的錢就超過了烏蘇娜出售糖動物的收益。大家覺得奇怪的只有一點——他已經是個完全成熟的人，爲什麼至今不結交女人，的確，他還沒有女人。
過了幾個月，那個弗蘭西斯科人又來到了馬孔多；他是個老流浪漢，差不多兩百歲了。他常常路過馬孔多，帶來自編的歌曲。在這些歌曲中，弗蘭西斯科人非常詳細地描繪了一些事情，這些事情都發生在他途中經過的地方——從馬諾爾村到沼澤地另一邊的城鄉里，所以，誰想把信息傳給熟人，或者想把什麼家事公諸於世，只消付兩分錢，弗蘭西斯科人就可把它列入自己的節目。有一天傍晚，烏蘇娜聽唱時希望知道兒子的消息，卻完全意外地聽到了自己母親的死訊。“弗蘭西斯科人”這個綽號的由來，是他在編歌比賽中戰勝過魔鬼，他的真名實姓是誰也不知道的；失眠症流行時，他就從馬孔多消失了，現在又突然來到了卡塔林諾遊藝場。大家都去聽他吟唱，瞭解世界上發生的事兒。跟弗蘭西斯科人一起來到馬孔多的，有一個婦人和一個年輕的混血姑娘；婦人挺胖，是四個印第安人用搖椅把她擡來的；她頭上撐着一把小傘，遮住陽光。混血姑娘卻是一副可憐相。這一次，奧雷連諾也來到了卡塔林諾遊藝場。弗蘭西斯科人端坐在一羣聽衆中間，彷彿一條碩大的變色龍。他用老年人顫抖的聲調歌唱，拿華特·賴利在圭亞那給他的那個古老的手風琴伴奏，用步行者的大腳掌打着拍子；他的腳掌已給海鹽弄得裂開了。屋子深處看得見另一個房間的門，一個個男人不時挨次進去，搖椅擡來的那個胖婦人坐在門口，默不作聲地扇着扇子，卡塔林諾耳後彆着一朵假玫瑰，正在賣甘蔗酒，並且利用一切藉口走到男人跟前，把手伸到他們身上去摸不該摸的地方。時到午夜，熱得難受。奧雷連諾聽完一切消息，可是沒有發現任何跟自己的家庭有關的事。他已經準備離開，這時那個婦人卻用手招呼他。
“你也進去吧，”她說。“只花兩角錢。”