世纪文学经典:《百年孤独》第1章Part 7

The discovery of the galleon, an indication of the proximity of the sea, broke José Arcadio Buendía's drive. He considered it a trick of his whimsical fate to have searched for the sea without finding it, at the cost of countless sacrifices and suffering, and to have found it all of a sudden without looking for it, as if it lay across his path like an insurmountable object. Many years later Colonel Aureliano Buendía crossed the region again, when it was already a regular mail route, and the only part of the ship he found was its burned-out frame in the midst of a field of poppies. Only then, convinced that the story had not been some product of his father's imagination, did he wonder how the galleon had been able to get inland to that spot. But José Arcadio Buendía did not concern himself with that when he found the sea after another four days' journey from the galleon. His dreams ended as he faced that ashen, foamy, dirty sea, which had not merited the risks and sacrifices of the adventure.
"God damn it!" he shouted. "Macondo is surrounded by water on all sides."
The idea of a peninsular Macondo prevailed for a long time, inspired by the arbitrary map that José Arcadio Buendía sketched on his return from the expedition. He drew it in rage, evilly, exaggerating the difficulties of communication, as if to punish himself for the absolute lack of sense with which he had chosen the place. "We'll never get anywhere," he lamented to úrsula. "We're going to rot our lives away here without receiving the benefits of science." That certainty, mulled over for several months in the small room he used as his laboratory, brought him to the conception of the plan to move Maeondo to a better place. But that time úrsula had anticipated his feverish designs. With the secret and implacable labor of a small ant she predisposed the women of the village against the flightiness of their husbands, who were already preparing for the move. José Arcadio Buendía did not know at what moment or because of what adverse forces his plan had become enveloped in a web of pretexts, disappointments,and evasions until it turned into nothing but an illusion. úrsula watched him with innocent attention and even felt some pity for him on the morning when she found him in the back room muttering about his plans for moving as he placed his laboratory pieces in their original boxes. She let him finish. She let him nail up the boxes and put his initials on them with an inked brush, without reproaching him, but knowing now that he knew (because she had heard him say so in his soft monologues) that the men of the village would not back him up in his undertaking. Only when he began to take down the door of the room did úrsula dare ask him what he was doing, and he answered with a certain bitterness. "Since no one wants to leave, we'll leave all by ourselves." úrsula did not become upset.
"We will not leave," she said. "We will stay here, because we have had a son here."

帆船的发现证明大海就在近旁，破坏了霍·阿·布恩蒂亚的战斗精神。他认为这是狡诈的命运在捉弄他：他千幸万苦寻找大海的时候，没有找到它；他不想找它的时候，现在却发现了它——它象一个不可克服的障碍横在他的路上。多年以后，奥雷连诺上校也来到这个地区的时候（那时这儿已经开辟了驿道），他在帆船失事的地方只能看见一片罂粟花中间烧糊的船骨。那时他者相信，这整个故事并不是他父亲虚构的，于是向自己提出个问题：帆船怎会深入陆地这么远呢？可是，再经过四天的路程，在离帆船十二公里的地方，霍·阿·布恩蒂亚看见大海的时候，并没有想到这类问题。在大海面前，他的一切幻想都破灭了；大海翻着泡沫，混浊不堪，灰茫茫一片，值不得他和伙伴们去冒险和牺牲。
“真他妈的！”霍·阿·布思蒂亚叫道。“马孔多四面八方都给海水围住啦！”
探险回来以后，霍·阿·布恩蒂亚绘了一幅地图：由于这张主观想出的地图，人们长时期里都以为马孔多是在一个半岛上面，他是恼怒地画出这张地图的，故意夸大跟外界往来的困难，仿佛想惩罚自己轻率地选择了这个建村的地点，“咱们再也去下了任何地方啦，”他向乌苏娜叫苦，“咱们会在这儿活活地烂掉，享受不到科学的好处了。”在自己的小试验室里，他把这种想法反刍似的咀嚼了几个月，决定把马孔多迁到更合适的地方去，可是妻子立即警告他，破坏了他那荒唐的计划。村里的男人已经开始准备搬家，乌苏娜却象蚂蚁一样悄悄地活动，一鼓作气唆使村中的妇女反对男人的轻举妄动。霍·阿·布恩蒂亚说不清楚，不知什么时候，由于什么对立的力量，他的计划遭到一大堆借口和托词的阻挠，终于变成没有结果的幻想。有一夭早晨乌苏娜发现，他一面低声叨咕搬家的计划，一面把白己的试验用具装进箱子，她只在旁边装傻地观察他，甚至有点儿怜悯他。她让他把事儿子完，在他钉上箱子，拿蘸了墨水的刷子在箱子上写好自己的缩写姓名时，她一句也没责备他，尽管她已明白（凭他含糊的咕噜），他知道村里的男人并不支持他的想法。只当霍·阿·布恩蒂亚开始卸下房门时，乌苏娜才大胆地向他要干什么，他有点难过地回答说：“既然谁也不想走，咱们就单独走吧。”乌苏娜没有发慌。
“不，咱们不走，”他说。“咱们要留在这儿。因为咱们在这儿生了个儿子。”