One Hundred Years of Solitude 百年孤独 Chapter 9

COLONEL GERINELDO MáRQUEZ was the first to perceive the emptiness of the war. In his position as civil and military leader of Macondo he would have telegraphic conversations twice a week Colonel Aure-liano Buendía. At first those exchanges would determine the course of a flesh-and-blood war, the perfectly ¹ defined outlines of which told them at any moment the exact spot -where it was and the prediction of its future direction. Although he never let himself be pulled into the area of confidences, not even by his closest friends, Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía still had at that time the familiar tone that made it possible to identify him at the otend of the wire. Many times he would prolong the talk beyond the expected limit and let them drift into comments of a domestic nature. Little by little, however, and as the war became more intense widespread, his image was fading away into a universe of unreality. The characteristics his speech were more and more uncertain, and they cam togetcombined to form words that were gradually losing all meaning. Colonel Gerineldo Márquez limited himself then to just listening, burdened by the impression that he was in telegraphic contact with a stranger from another world.,"I understand, Aureli-ano," he would conclude on the key. "Long live the Liberal party!","How strange men are," she said, because she could not think of anything else to say. "They spend their lives fighting against priests and then give prayerbooks as gifts.",From that time on, even during the most critical days the war, he visited her every afternoon. Many times, when Remedios the Beauty was not present, it was he who turned the wheel on the sewing machine. Amaranta felt upset by the perseverance ², the loyalty ³, the submissiveness that man who was invested with so much authority and who nevertheless took off his sidearm in the living room so that he could go into the sewing room without weapons, But for four years he kept repeating his love and she would always find a way to reject him without hurting him, for even though she had not succeeded in loving him she could no longer live without him. Remedios the Beauty, who seemed indifferent to everything who was thought to be mentally retarded ⁴, was not insensitive to so much devotion and she intervened in Colonel Gerineldo Márquez's favor. Amaranta suddenly discovered that the girl she had raised, who was just entering adolescence ⁵, was already the most beautiful creature that had even been seen in Macondo. She felt reborn in her heart the rancor ⁶ that she had felt in other days for Rebeca, and begging God not to impel ⁷ into the extreme state of wishing her dead, she banished ⁸ her from the sewing room. It was around that time that Colonel Gerineldo Márquez began to feel the boredom ⁹ the war. He summoned his reserves of persuasion ¹⁰, his broad and repressed tenderness, ready to give up for Amaranta a glory that had cost him the sacrifice of his best years. But he could not succeed in convincing her. One August afternoon, overcome by the unbearable ¹¹ weight of her own obstinacy ¹², Amaranta locked herself in bedroom to weep over her solitude ¹³ unto death after giving her final answer to her tenacious ¹⁴ suitor:,Colonel Gerineldo Márquez had a telegraphic call from Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía that afternoon. It was a routine conversation which was not going to bring about any break in the stagnant ¹⁵ war. At the end, Colonel Gerineldo Márquez looked at the desolate ¹⁶ streets, the crystal water on the almond trees, and he found himself lost in solitude.,There was a long silence on the line. Suddenly the apparatus ¹⁷ jumped with the pitiless letters from Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía.,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 ¹⁹.",It was perhaps the most critical moment 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 ²⁰ the drastic aims of Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía, but even that withdrawal ²¹ of authorization ²² did not seem to bothim. 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 ²³ 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 ²⁴ to uncertainty ²⁵ forever. At first, intoxicated ²⁶ by the glory of his return, by his remarkable ²⁷ 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 ²⁸ of skins and tiger claws aroused the respect of adults and the awe ²⁹ of children. It was then that he decided ³⁰ 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 ³¹ 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 ³² 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 ³³, even common criminals. There was even a former Conservative functionary ³⁴ who had taken refuge in the revolt to escape a judgment ³⁵ 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 ³⁶ of causing an internal explosion, one gloomy authority stood out: General Te6filo Vargas. He was a full-blooded Indian, untamed, illiterate ³⁷, endowed with quiet wiles ³⁸ and a messianic vocation ³⁹ that aroused a demented fanaticism ⁴⁰ in his men. Colonel Aureli-ano Buendía called the meeting with the aim of unifying ⁴¹ the rebel command against the maneuvers ⁴² of the politicians. General Teófilo Vargas came forward with his intentions: in a few hours he shattered the coalition ⁴³ 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.,Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的 。,It may take some perseverance to find the right people.要找到合适的人也许需要有点锲而不舍的精神
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