世纪文学经典:《百年孤独》第14章Part6

"That's a fine excuse," he said.
Meme realized that he was burning in the heat of his pride, and she desperately looked for a way to humiliate him. But he would not give her any time. "Don't get upset," he said to her in a low voice. "It's not the first time that a woman has gone crazy over a man." She felt so defeated that she left the garage without seeing the new models and she spent the night turning over in bed and weeping with indignation. The American redhead, who was really beginning to interest her, looked like a baby in diapers. It was then that she realized that the yellow butterflies preceded the appearances of Mauricio Babilonia. She had seen them before, especially over the garage, and she had thought that they were drawn by the smell of paint. Once she had seen them fluttering about her head before she went into the movies. But when Mauricio Babilonia began to pursue her like a ghost that only she could identify in the crowd, she understood that the butterflies had something to do with him. Mauricio Babilonia was always in theaudience at the concerts, at the movies, at high mass, and she did not have to see him to know that he was there, because the butterflies were always there. Once Aureli-ano Segun-do became so impatient with the suffocating fluttering that she felt the impulse to confide her secret to him as she had promised, but instinct told her that he would laugh as usual and say: "What would your mother say if she found out?" One morning, while she was pruning the roses, Fernanda let out a cry of fright and had Meme taken away from the spot where she was, which was the same place in the garden where Remedios the Beauty had gone up to heaven. She had thought for an instant that the miracle was going to be repeated with her daughter, because she had been bothered by a sudden flapping of wings. It was the butterflies. Meme saw them as if they had suddenly been born out of the light and her heart gave a turn. At that moment Mauricio Babilonia came in with a package that according to what he said, was a present from Patricia Brown. Meme swallowed her blush, absorbed her tribulation, and even managed a natural smile as she asked him the favor of leaving it on the railing because her hands were dirty from the garden. The only thing that Fernanda noted in the man whom a few months later she was to expel from the house without remembering where she had seen him was the bilious texture of his skin.
"He's a very strange man," Fernanda said. "You can see in his face that he's going to die."

“嗯，这个借口不错嘛，”他回答。
梅梅觉得，他那高傲的烈火的伤了她，她就拼命想法伤他的面子。但他不让她有时间这么干。“别怕，”他降低声音说。“女人为男人发疯已不是头一遭了。”她觉得自己束手无策，甚至没看新式汽车一眼，就从汽车库走了出去，通宵都在床上翻来覆去，气得直哭。说实在的，已经使她感到兴趣的那个红头发美国人，此刻在她眼里不过象一个裹着尿布的小孩儿了。正是从这个时候起，她发现黄蝴蝶预示毛里西奥·巴比洛尼亚的出现。以前，尤其在汽车库里，她看见过黄蝴蝶，可她以为它们是被油漆吸引到那儿去的。有一次，在暗黑的观众厅里，梅梅听到它们在她的头顶上飞舞。但是，当毛里西奥·巴比洛尼亚象个鬼影（在人群中只有她一个人看得见这个鬼影）追踪她的时候，她才想到黄蝴蝶跟他有某种关系。在音乐会上，在电影院里，在教堂里做弥撒时，毛里西奥·巴比洛尼亚经常都在人群中间；要发现他，梅梅只消举眼找到黄蝴蝶就行了。有一次奥雷连诺第二大发牢骚，咒骂黄蝴蝶讨厌地飞来飞去，梅梅差点儿象她以前答应过父亲的那样，把自己的秘密告诉他，但她下意识地想到，他又会象往常一样笑着说：“如果你母亲知道了，她会说什么呀？”有一天早上，菲兰达和梅梅正在修剪玫瑰花丛的时候，菲兰达忽然惊叫一声，从梅梅站立的地方——俏姑娘雷麦黛丝升天的地方，把梅梅往旁边一拖。空中突然出现的翅膀拍动声把菲兰达吓了一跳，刹那间她以为怪事又要在女儿身上重现了。然而这是蝴蝶。它们那么突然地出现在梅梅眼前，仿佛是从阳光里产生的，使得她的心都缩紧了。就在这时，毛里西奥。 巴比洛尼亚走进花园，手里拿着一个包包，他说这是帕特里西娅。 布劳恩的赠品。梅梅勉强驱散了脸上羞涩的红晕，装出一副十分自然的笑容，请他把包包放在长廊的栏杆上，因为她的手挺脏。菲兰达在这个人身上注意到的，只是他那病态的、发黄的皮肤；几个月之后她将把他撵出自己的家，甚至记不起她在哪儿见过他了。
“一个很古怪的人，”菲兰达说。“凭他的脸色就能看出，他活不了多久。”