世紀文學經典:《百年孤獨》第3章Part 4

They had indeed contracted the illness of insomnia. úrsula, who had learned from her mother the medicinal value of plants, prepared and made them all drink a brew of monkshood, but they could not get to sleep and spent the whole day dreaming on their feet. In that state of hallucinated lucidity, not only did they see the images of their own dreams, but some saw the images dreamed by others. It was as if the house were full of visitors. Sitting in her rocker in a corner of the kitchen, Rebeca dreamed that a man who looked very much like her, dressed in white linen and with his shirt collar closed by a gold button, was bringing her a bouquet of roses. He was accompanied by a woman with delicate hands who took out one rose and put it in the child's hair. úrsula understood that the man and woman were Rebeca's parents, but even though she made a great effort to recognize them, she confirmed her certainty that she had never seen them. In the meantime, through an oversight that José Arcadio Buendía never forgavehimself for, the candy animals made in the house were still being sold in the town. Children and adults sucked with delight on the delicious little green roosters of insomnia, the exquisite pink fish of insomnia, and the tender yellow ponies of insomnia, so that dawn on Monday found the whole town awake. No one was alarmed at first. On the contrary, they were happy at not sleeping because there was so much to do in Macondo in those days that there was barely enough time. They worked so hard that soon they had nothing else to do and they could be found at three o'clock in the morning with their arms crossed, counting the notes in the waltz of the clock. Those who wanted to sleep, not from fatigue but because of the nostalgia for dreams, tried all kinds of methods of exhausting themselves. They would gather together to converse endlessly, to tell over and over for hours on end the same jokes, to complicate to the limits of exasperation the story about the capon, which was an endless game in which the narrator asked if they wanted him to tell them the story about the capon, and when they answered yes, the narrator would say that he had not asked them to say yes, but whether they wanted him to tell them the story about the capon, and when they answered no, the narrator told them that he had not asked them to say no, but whether they wanted him to tell them the story about the capon, and when they remained silent the narrator told them that he had not asked them to remain silent but whether they wanted him to tell them the story about the capon, and no one could leave because the narrator would say that he had not asked them to leave but whether they wanted him to tell them the story about the capon, and so on and on in a vicious circle that lasted entire nights.
When José Arcadio Buendía realized that the plague had invaded the town, he gathered together the heads of families to explain to them what he knew about the sickness of insomnia, and they agreed on methods to prevent the scourge from spreading to other towns in the swamp. That was why they took the bells off the goats, bells that the Arabs had swapped them for macaws, and put them at the entrance to town at the disposal of those who would not listen to the advice and entreaties of the sentinels and insisted on visiting the town. All strangers who passed through the streets of Macondo at that time had to ring their bells so that the sick people would know that they were healthy. They were not allowed to eat or drink anything during their stay, for there was no doubt but that the illness was transmitted by mouth, and all food and drink had been contaminated by insomnia. In that way they kept the plague restricted to the perimeter of the town. So effective was the quarantine that the day came when the emergency situation was accepted as a natural thing and life was organized in such a way that work picked up its rhythm again and no one worried any more about the useless habit of sleeping.
It was Aureliano who conceived the formula that was to protect them against loss of memory for several months. He discovered it by chance. An expert insomniac, having been one of the first, he had learned the art of silverwork to perfection. One day he was looking for the small anvil that he used for laminating metals and he could not remember its name. His father told him: "Stake." Aureliano wrote the name on a piece of paper that he pasted to the base of the small anvil: stake. In that way he was sure of not forgetting it in the future. It did not occur to him that this was the first manifestation of a loss of memory, because the object had a difficult name to remember. But a few days later be, discovered that he had trouble remembering almost every object in the laboratory. Then he marked them with their respective names so that all he had to do was read the inscription in order to identify them. When his father told him about his alarm at having forgotten even the most impressive happenings of his childhood, Aureliano explained his method to him, and José Arcadio Buendía put it into practice all through the house and later on imposed it on the whole village. With an inked brush he marked everything with its name: table, chair, clock, door, wall, bed, pan. He went to the corral and marked the animals and plants: cow, goat, pig, hen, cassava, caladium, banana. Little by little, studying the infinite possibilities of a loss of memory, he realized that the day might come when things would be recognized by their inscriptions but that no one would remember their use. Then he was more explicit. The sign that he hung on the neck of the cow was an exemplary proof of the way in which the inhabitants of Macondo were prepared to fight against loss of memory: This is the cow. She must be milked every morning so that she will produce milk, and the milk must be boiled in order to be mixed with coffee to make coffee and milk. Thus they went on living in a reality that was slipping away, momentarily captured by words, but which would escape irremediably when they forgot the values of the written letters.

的確，全家的人都息了失眠症，烏蘇娜曾從母親那兒得到一些草藥知識，就用烏頭熬成湯劑，給全家的人喝了，可是大家仍然不能成眠，而且白天站着也做夢。處在這種半睡半醒的古怪狀態中，他們不僅看到自己夢中的形象，而且看到別人夢中的形象。彷彿整座房子都擠滿了客人。雷貝卡坐在廚房犄角里的搖椅上，夢見一個很象她的人，這人穿着白色亞麻布衣服，襯衫領子上有一顆金色鈕釦，獻給她一柬玫瑰花。他的身邊站着一個雙手細嫩的女人，她拿出一朵玫瑰花來，佩戴在雷貝卡的頭髮上，烏蘇娜明白，這男人和女人是姑娘的父母，可是不管怎樣竭力辨認，也不認識他們，終於相信以前是從來沒有見過他們的。同時，由於注意不夠（這是霍·阿·布恩蒂亞不能原諒自己的），家裏製作的糖動物照舊拿到鎮上去賣。大人和孩子都快活地吮着有味的綠色公雞、漂亮的粉紅色小魚、最甜的黃色馬兒。這些糖動物似乎也是患了失眠症的。星期一天亮以後，全城的人已經不睡覺了。起初，誰也不擔心。許多的人甚至高興，——因爲當時馬孔多百業待興，時間不夠。人們那麼勤奮地工作，在短時間內就把一切都做完了，現在早晨三點就雙臂交叉地坐着，計算自鳴鐘的華爾茲舞曲有多少段曲調。想睡的人——井非由於疲乏，而是渴望做夢——採取各種辦法把自己弄得精疲力盡，他們聚在一起，不住地絮絮叨叨，一連幾小時把同樣的奇聞說了又說，大講特講白色閹雞的故事。一直把故事搞得複雜到了極點。這是一種沒完沒了的玩耍——講故事的人問其餘的人，他們想不想聽白色閹雞的故事，如果他們回答他“是的”，他就說他要求回答的不是“是的”，而是要求回答：他們想不想聽白色閹雞的故事；如果他們回答說“不”，他就說他要求回答的不是“不”，而是要求回答：他們想不想聽白色閹雞的故事；如果大家沉默不語，他就說他要求的不是沉默不語，而是要求回答：他們想不想聽白色閹雞的故事，而且誰也不能走開，因爲他說他沒有要求他們走開，而是要求回答：他們想不想聽白色閹雞的故事。就這樣，一圈一圈的人，整夜整夜說個沒完。
霍·阿·布恩蒂亞知道傳染病遍及整個市鎮，就把家長們召集起來，告訴他們有關這種失眠症的常識，並且設法防止這種疾病向鄰近的城鄉蔓延。於是，大家從一隻只山羊身上取下了鈴鐺——用鸚鵡向阿拉伯人換來的鈴鐺，把它們掛在馬孔多人口的地方，供給那些不聽崗哨勸阻、硬要進鎮的人使用。凡是這時經過馬孔多街道的外來人都得搖搖鈴鐺，讓失眠症患者知道來人是健康的。他們在鎮上停留的時候，不準吃喝，因爲毫無疑問，病從口人嘛，而馬孔多的一切食物和飲料都染上了失眠症，採取這些辦法，他們就把這種傳染病限制在市鎮範圍之內了。隔離是嚴格遵守的，大家逐漸習慣了緊急狀態。生活重新上了軌道，工作照常進行，誰也不再擔心失去了無益的睡眠習慣。
在幾個月中幫助大家跟隱忘症進行鬥爭的辦法，是奧雷連諾發明的。他發現這種辦法也很偶然。奧雷連諾是個富有經驗的病人——因爲他是失眠症的第一批患者之一——完全掌握了首飾技術。有一次，他需要一個平常用來捶平金屬的小鐵砧，可是記不起它叫什麼了。父親提醒他：“鐵砧。”奧雷連諾就把這個名字記在小紙片上，貼在鐵砧底兒上。現在，他相信再也不會忘記這個名字了。可他沒有想到，這件事兒只是健忘症的第一個表現。過了幾天他已覺得，他費了大勁才記起試驗室內幾乎所有東西的名稱。於是，他給每樣東西都貼上標籤，現在只要一看籤條上的字兒，就能確定這是什麼東西了。不安的父親叫苦連天，說他忘了童年時代甚至印象最深的事兒，奧雷連諾就把自己的辦法告訴他，於是霍·阿·布恩蒂亞首先在自己家裏加以採用，然府在全鎮推廣。他用小刷子蘸了墨水，給房裏的每件東西都寫上名稱：“桌”、“鍾”、“們”、“牆”、“牀”、“鍋”。然後到畜欄和田地裏去，也給牲畜、家禽和植物標上名字：“牛”、“山羊”、“豬”、“雞”、“木薯”、“香蕉”。人們研究各種健忘的事物時逐漸明白，他們即使根據籤條記起了東西的名稱，有朝一日也會想不起它的用途。隨後，他們就把籤條搞得很複雜了。一頭乳牛脖子上掛的牌子，清楚他說明馬孔多居民是如何跟健忘症作鬥爭的：“這是一頭乳牛。每天早晨擠奶，就可得到牛奶，把牛奶煮沸，摻上咖啡，就可得牛奶咖啡。”就這樣，他們生活在經常滑過的現實中，藉助字兒能把現實暫時抓住，可是一旦忘了字兒的意義，現實也就難免忘諸腦後了。