Why should you read "One Hundred Years of Solitude"? - Francisco Díez-Buzo

譯者: Lilian Chiu 審譯者: Helen Chang

One day in 1965, while driving to Acapulco for a vacation with his family,

1965 年，有一天，在開車前往 阿卡普爾科與家人渡假的時候，

Colombian journalist Gabriel García Márquez abruptly turned his car around,

哥倫比亞記者加布列 賈西亞馬奎斯突然把車調頭，

asked his wife to take care of the family’s finances for the coming months,

請他的太太在接下來幾個月 處理好家中的財務，

and returned home.

接著返家。

The beginning of a new book had suddenly come to him:

他突然想到了一本書的開端：

“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad,

「許多年後，當他面對著行刑隊，

Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon

倭良諾邦迪亞上校憶起了 很久以前的那個午後，

when his father took him to discover ice.”

他的父親帶他去尋找冰。」

Over the next eighteen months,

在接下來的十八個月，

those words would blossom into One Hundred Years of Solitude.

那些文字開花結果 成了《百年孤寂》。

A novel that would go on to bring Latin American literature

這本小說接下來把 拉丁美洲文學帶到了

to the forefront of the global imagination,

全球想像的最前線，

earning García Márquez the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature.

讓賈西亞馬奎斯贏得了 1982 年的諾貝爾文學獎。

What makes One Hundred Years of Solitude so remarkable?

《百年孤寂》為何如此了不起？

The novel chronicles the fortunes and misfortunes

這本小說記述了邦迪亞家族

of the Buendía family over seven generations.

七個世代的幸運與不幸。

With its lush, detailed sentences,

它有著很豐富又很細膩的文句，

large cast of characters,

很龐大的角色人物班底，

and tangled narrative,

還有糾結的故事，

One Hundred Years of Solitude is not an easy book to read.

所以，《百年孤寂》並不是 很容易讀的一本書。

But it’s a deeply rewarding one,

但它是非常值得一讀的，

with an epic assortment of intense romances,

它包含了各種史詩般的熱戀、

civil war,

內戰、

political intrigue,

政治陰謀、

globe-trotting adventurers,

旅行全球的冒險家，

and more characters named Aureliano than you’d think possible.

還有一大堆叫倭良諾的角色， 多到你無法想像。

Yet this is no mere historical drama.

但它並不只是一部歷史劇，

One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of the most famous examples

《百年孤寂》是所謂的 「魔幻寫實主義」

of a literary genre known as magical realism.

這個文學類別當中 最著名的例子之一。

Here, supernatural events or abilities

這本書會用寫實或事實的語調

are described in a realistic and matter-of-fact tone,

來描述超自然事件或能力，

while the real events of human life and history

而人類生活及歷史的真實事件

reveal themselves to be full of fantastical absurdity.

卻是充滿了奇幻的荒誕。

Surreal phenomena within the fictional village of Macondo

在虛構的村落「馬康多」 裡的超現實現象

intertwine seamlessly with events taking place in the real country of Colombia.

和真實國家哥倫比亞 所發生的事件無縫地交織在一起。

The settlement begins in a mythical state of isolation,

這個殖民地一開始是處於 神話般的孤立狀態，

but is gradually exposed to the outside world,

但它漸漸和外面的世界接觸，

facing multiple calamities along the way.

在過程中要面對許多災難。

As years pass, characters grow old and die,

很多年過去了，角色長大並過世，

only to return as ghosts,

若不是以鬼魂的形態返回，

or to be seemingly reincarnated in the next generation.

似乎就是投胎轉世到下一個世代。

When the American fruit company comes to town,

當美國的水果公司來到鎮上，

so does a romantic mechanic who is always followed by yellow butterflies.

一個浪漫的技工也來了， 總是有黃色蝴蝶跟在他身邊。

A young woman up and floats away.

一名年輕女子向上飄走。

Although the novel moves forward through subsequent generations,

雖然這本小說是透過 後續的世代繼續向前走下去，

time moves in an almost cyclical manner.

時間的移動則幾乎是循環式的。

Many characters have similar names and features to their forebears,

許多角色都有和其祖先 類似的名字和特徵，

whose mistakes they often repeat.

他們也常會重覆 其祖先犯過的錯誤。

Strange prophecies and visits from mysterious gypsies

奇怪的預言和神秘吉普賽人的造訪

give way to the skirmishes and firing squads of repeated civil wars.

讓步給小衝突及重覆 發生之內戰的行刑隊。

An American fruit company opens a plantation near the village

一間美國水果公司在村落附近 開了一個種植園，

and ends up massacring thousands of striking workers,

最後卻屠殺了數千名罷工工人，

mirroring the real-life ‘Banana Massacre’ of 1928.

反映出現實中在 1928 年 發生的「香蕉大屠殺」。

Combined with the novel’s magical realism,

和這本小說的魔幻寫實主義結合，

this produces a sense of history as a downward spiral

所產生的歷史感像是向下的旋渦，

the characters seem powerless to escape.

角色們似乎都沒有能力從中逃脫。

Beneath the magic is a story about the pattern of Colombian

在魔術背後的故事 和哥倫比亞的模式

and Latin American history from colonial times onward.

以及殖民時期之後的 拉丁美洲歷史有關。

This is a history that the author experienced firsthand.

這是作者自己親自經歷過的歷史。

Gabriel García Márquez grew up in a Colombia torn apart by civil conflict

加布列賈西亞馬奎斯在哥倫比亞 長大，當時內戰讓國家四分五裂，

between its Conservative and Liberal political parties.

內戰的兩方是政治的 保守派和自由派。

He also lived in an autocratic Mexico

他也住過獨裁的墨西哥，

and covered the 1958 Venezuelan coup d’état as a journalist.

以記者身份報導了 1958 年 委內瑞拉的政變。

But perhaps his biggest influences were his maternal grandparents.

但影響他最多的 應該是他的外公外婆。

Nicolás Ricardo Márquez was a decorated veteran of the Thousand Days War

尼可拉斯里卡多馬奎斯是 在千日戰爭中被授勛的退伍軍人，

whose accounts of the rebellion against Colombia's conservative government

他對於反抗哥倫比亞 保守政府的想法

led Gabriel García Márquez to a socialist outlook.

讓加布列賈西亞馬奎斯 有了社會主義的觀點。

Meanwhile, Doña Tranquilina Iguarán Cotes’ omnipresent superstition

同時，多娜特拉奇莉娜依葛瓦蘭 柯提斯的迷信無所不在，

became the foundation of One Hundred Years of Solitude’s style.

成了《百年孤寂》風格的基礎。

Their small house in Aracataca where the author spent his childhood

他們的小房子所在的阿拉卡塔卡， 是作者兒時居住的地方，

formed the main inspiration for Macondo.

這是創造出馬貢多的 主要靈感來源。

With One Hundred Years of Solitude,

透過《百年孤寂》，

Gabriel García Márquez found a unique way

加布列賈西亞馬奎斯 找到了一種獨特的方式

to capture the unique history of Latin America.

來捕捉拉丁美洲的獨特歷史。

He was able to depict the strange reality of living in a post-colonial society,

他能夠描寫出住在 後殖民社會中的奇怪現實，

forced to relive the tragedies of the past.

被迫要重新經歷一次過去的悲劇。

In spite of all this fatalism, the novel still holds hope.

儘管有所有這些宿命論， 這本小說仍然抱有希望。

At his Nobel Lecture,

在諾貝爾演講上，

García Marquez reflected on Latin America’s long history

加布列馬奎斯反思了 拉丁美洲的漫長歷史，

of civil strife and rampant iniquity.

國內衝突和不平等猖獗的歷史。

Yet he ended the speech by affirming the possibility of building a better world,

然而，在演說的最後，他肯定 還是有可能建造出更好的世界，

to quote, “where no one will be able to decide for others how they die,

引述他的話：「在那裡，沒有人能 幫其他人決定他們要如何死亡，

where love will prove true

在那裡，愛會被證明是真的，

and happiness be possible,

且快樂是有可能的，

and where the races condemned to one hundred years of solitude

在那裡，被詛咒了百年孤寂的種族，

will have, at last and forever, a second chance on earth."

最終且永遠，會得到 在地球上的第二次機會。」