这里展现了所有爱情的形态：忠贞的、隐秘的、粗暴的、羞怯的、柏拉图式的、放荡的、转瞬即逝的、生死相依的……《霍乱时期的爱情》是加西亚·马尔克斯获得诺贝尔文学奖之后完成的第一部小说。讲述的是一段跨越半个多世纪的爱情史诗，并被誉为“人类有史以来最伟大的爱情小说”。小编也迷恋于书中各种充满主题感的描写：一块肥皂引发的冷战；乌尔比诺医生无穷尽的“首创精神”；弗洛伦蒂诺日记体式的描写各色的女人；每遇大事如解药般的旅行。旅行总是为了寻找或是逃避：为了拆散费尔明娜与弗洛伦蒂诺，达萨先生带着女儿走上了长达一年多的省亲之旅；初闻菲尔明娜婚讯，弗洛伦蒂诺的一次疗伤之旅；费尔明娜与医生的两次蜜月之旅；以及在最后两位重逢老人的终生之旅。本文节选了达萨先生为女儿准备的一次难忘的“遗忘之旅”。
20年前，马尔克斯与代理人卡门·巴尔塞伊丝女士曾到北京和上海访问。这次中国之行给他留下颇为糟糕的印象，书店随处可见各出版社擅自出版的《百年孤独》、《霍乱时期的爱情》等书。马尔克斯在结束中国之行后发下狠话——“死后150年都不授权中国出版其作品，包括《百年孤独》。”如今，老马哥改变主意了，趁咱们生前有机会，赶紧拜读吧。
That same week he took his daughter away on the journey that would make her forget. He gave her no explanation at all, but burst into her bedroom, his mustache stained with fury and his chewed cigar, and ordered her to pack. She asked him where they were going, and he answered: “To our death.” Frightened by a response that seemed too close to the truth, she tried to face him with the courage of a few days before, but he took off his belt with its hammered copper buckle, twisted it around his fist, and hit the table with a blow that resounded through the house like a rifle shot. Fermina Daza knew very well the extent and occasion of her own strength, and so she packed a bedroll with two straw mats and a 1)hammock, and two large trunks with all her clothes, certain that this was a trip from which she would never return. Before she dressed, she locked herself in the bathroom and wrote a brief farewell letter to Florentino Ariza on a sheet torn from the pack of toilet paper. Then she cut off her entire 2)braid at the 3)nape of her neck with 4)cuticle scissors, rolled it inside a velvet box embroidered with gold thread, and sent it along with the letter.
就在那个星期，他带着女儿去旅行了，为了让她忘掉一切。他没有向女儿作出任何解释，而是冲进她的房间，嘴唇上方的胡子沾着雪茄沫和怒气，他命令女儿收拾行李。她问他去哪里，他回答说：“去死。”她被这个听上去过于真实的回答吓了一跳，试图用前几天的勇气面对他，但他解下自己带有实心铜扣的皮带，在拳头上绕了一圈，然后狠狠地在桌子上抽了一下，声音像来复枪的枪声一样响彻整座房子。费尔明娜·达萨很清楚自己的力量所能发挥的限度和时机，于是将两张草席和一个吊床打成铺盖卷，把所有的衣服都装进两个大箱子，她确信这是一次永远不会再回来的旅行。穿上衣服之前，她把自己锁在卫生间里，匆忙地从卫生卷纸上撕下一张，给弗洛伦蒂诺·阿里萨写了一封简短的告别信。接着，她用修甲皮的剪刀从后颈处齐根剪下自己的发辫，将它卷好装在镀有金线的天鹅绒盒子里，连同那封信一起寄了出去。
It was a 5)demented trip. The first stage along the ridges of the 6)Sierra Nevada, riding muleback in a 7)caravan of Andean mule drivers, lasted eleven days, during which time they were 8)stupefied by the naked sun or 9)drenched by the horizontal October rains and almost always 10)petrified by the numbing 11)vapors rising from the 12)precipices. On the third day, a mule maddened by 13)gadflies fell into a 14)ravine with its rider, dragging along the entire line, and the screams of the man and his pack of seven animals tied to one another, continued to rebound along the cliffs and gullies for several hours after the disaster, and continued to resound for years and years in the memory of Fermina Daza. All her baggage plunged over the side with the mules, but in the centurieslong instant of the fall, until the scream of terror was extinguished at the bottom, she did not think of the poor dead mule driver or his mangled pack but of how unfortunate it was that the mule she was riding had not been tied to the others as well.
那是一次疯狂的旅行。最初，他们同安第斯山的脚夫们组成骡队，同行了十一天。一行人骑在骡背上，在内华达山的悬崖峭壁上前行，一时被炎炎烈日烤得皮肤干裂，一时又被十月的横向雨浇得浑身湿透，几乎每时每刻都被陡峭山峦上那令人昏昏欲睡的雾气弄得呼吸艰难。上路第三天，一头骡子被牛虻叮后发了疯，连同背上的骑手一起摔下了悬崖，还把同它栓在一起的几头骡子也带了下去。骑手和七头畜生的惨叫声在山谷和峭壁间回荡了好几个小时，而后又在费尔明娜·达萨的记忆中年复一年地回响着。她的全部行李都同骡子一起坠入了深渊，但在那个仿佛持续了几个世纪的永恒瞬间，在从骡子和骑手掉下去，到他们惊恐的惨叫声消失在深谷中的这段时间里，费尔明娜·达萨心里想的并不是那位摔死的可怜骑手，也不是那队粉身碎骨的骡子，而是遗憾自己骑的骡子没有和它们拴在一起。
It was the first time she had ever ridden, but the terror and unspeakable 15)privations of the trip would not have seemed so bitter to her if it had not been for the certainty that she would never see Florentino Ariza again or have the consolation of his letters. She had not said a word to her father since the beginning of the trip, and he was so confounded that he hardly spoke to her even when it was an absolute necessity to do so, or he sent the mule drivers to her with messages. When their luck was good they found some roadside inn that served 16)rustic food which she refused to eat, and rented them canvas cots stained with 17)rancid perspiration and 18)urine. But more often they spent the night in Indian settlements, in open-air public dormitories built at the side of the road, with their rows of wooden poles and roofs of bitter palm, where every passerby had the right to stay until dawn. Fermina Daza could not sleep through a single night as she sweated in fear and listened in the darkness to the coming and going of silent travelers who tied their animals to the poles and hung their hammocks where they could.
那是她第一次骑牲口，但若不是想到肯定再也见不到弗洛伦蒂诺·阿里萨、再也得不到他的信带来的慰藉，旅行的可怕以及数不清的艰辛原本也不会令她如此痛苦。从旅行一开始，她就再没和父亲说过一句话，而他自己也心烦意乱，只在必要时和她说上两句，或者让脚夫给她捎个口信。运气好时，他们会在路边遇到一家客栈，那里提供一些简单粗糙的食物，而她却拒绝进食。客栈还租给他们几张帆布床，上面布满发霉的汗渍和尿渍，污秽不堪。但更多时候，他们只能在印第安人的村落过夜。那里有一些建在路边的露天营地，用粗树枝架起围墙，苦棕榈叶搭成屋顶，所有路过的人都可以在里面睡上一晚，直到天亮。旅途中，费尔明娜·达萨没有睡过一宿整觉，总是被吓得直冒冷汗，在黑暗中感觉到过路的人们悄悄忙碌着，把牲口拴在树干上，尽可能地找一个地方挂起吊床。
At nightfall, when the first travelers would arrive, the place was uncrowded and peaceful, but by dawn it had been transformed into a fairground, with a mass of hammocks hanging at different levels and Aruac Indians from the mountains sleeping on their haunches; with the raging of the tethered goats, and the uproar of the fighting cocks in their pharaonic crates, and the panting silence of the mountain dogs, who had been taught not to bark because of the dangers of war. Those privations were familiar to Lorenzo Daza, who had trafficked through the region for half his life and almost always met up with old friends at dawn. For his daughter it was perpetual agony.The stench of the loads of salted catfish added to the loss of appetite caused by her grief, and eventually destroyed her habit of eating, and if she did not go mad with despair it was because she always found relief in the memory of Florentino Ariza. She did not doubt that this was the land of forgetting.
Two days later they descended to the 19)luminous plain where the joyful town of Valledupar was located. They stayed in the home of Uncle Lisímaco Sánchez, her mother’s brother, who had come out to receive them on the King’s Highway at the head of a noisy troop of young relatives riding the best-bred horses in the entire province, and they were led through the streets of the town to the accompaniment of exploding fireworks.
No sooner had they 20)dismounted in the stables than the reception rooms were overflowing with numerous unknown relatives whose unbearable 21)effusiveness was a 22)scourge to Fermina Daza, for she was incapable of ever loving anyone else in this world. She suffered from saddle burn, she was dying of fatigue and loose bowels, and all she longed for was a solitary and quiet place to cry. Her cousin Hildebranda Sánchez, two years older than she and with the same imperial haughtiness, was the only one who understood her condition as soon as she saw her, because she, too, was being consumed in the 23)fiery coals of reckless love.
When it grew dark she took her to the bedroom that she had prepared to share with her, and seeing the burning 24)ulcers on her buttocks, she could not believe that she still lived. With the help of her mother, a very sweet woman who looked as much like her husband as if they were twins, she prepared a bath for her and cooled the burning with 25)arnica compresses, while the thunder from the gun-powder castle shook the foundations of the house.
傍晚，当第一批旅行者到达时，这里还空旷安静，但天亮时却已变成热闹的集市。吊床高高低低地悬着，从山里来的阿劳科人则蹲坐着头趴在膝盖上就睡了一宿。拴起来的山羊愤怒地叫着，斗鸡在它们那法老式的箱子里扑腾，而山里的野狗默不作声地喘着粗气，因为它们常年处在战争的危险当中，早已学会了不能乱吠。这些艰苦对于在本地做了半辈子买卖的洛伦索·达萨来说司空见惯，他总是在破晓时分跟老朋友们碰头的。可对于他的女儿来说，却是长久的痛苦。摞成堆的咸鲇鱼散发出恶臭，加上她本来就因相思之苦而失去胃口，最终导致她茶饭不思。而如果说她到底没有因绝望而发疯，那是因为她常常从对弗洛伦蒂诺·阿里萨的回忆中找到了一丝安慰。她毫不怀疑这片地方正是遗忘之地。
两天以后他们下山，来到明亮的平原，快乐的巴耶杜帕尔镇就坐落在那里。他们寄宿在她母亲的兄弟利希马科·桑切斯舅舅的家里。舅舅率领着浩浩荡荡的一队年轻亲戚，骑着全省最好的良种骏马，到皇家公路上来迎接他们，引领他们在烟火的轰鸣声中穿过镇子的一条条街道。
他们在马厩刚从坐骑上下来，一群陌生的亲戚就从主客厅里涌出来，令人窒息的热情让费尔明娜心烦意乱。此刻，她再也没有心思去爱这世上的其他什么人了，而且骡背上的长途跋涉弄得她臀部肿痛，困得要死，而且还在闹肚子。她唯一渴望的，是找个僻静的地方，痛快地哭上一场。她的表姐伊尔德布兰达·桑切斯比她年长两岁，和她一样如女王般傲视一切。唯有她，从看见费尔明娜的第一眼起，就看穿了她的心事，因为她自己也在经受一段莽撞爱情的煎熬。
傍晚时，她把费尔明娜带到准备好的卧室，让她同自己住在一起。她不明白，臀部磨出那么多火泡的费尔明娜是怎么活下来的。在母亲的帮助下——她母亲是一个极温柔的女人，和丈夫长得很像，就像孪生兄妹——伊尔德布兰达表姐为费尔明娜安排了坐浴，还为她敷上山金车花，以减轻灼烧的痛楚。与此同时，烟火塔的隆隆声震颤着整幢房子的地基。
At midnight the visitors left, the public 26)fiesta scattered into smoldering embers, and Cousin Hildebranda lent Fermina Daza a 27)madapollam nightgown and helped her to lie down in a bed with smooth sheets and feather pillows, and without warning she was filled with the instantaneous panic of happiness. When at last they were alone in the bedroom, Cousin Hildebranda bolted the door with a crossbar and from under the straw matting of her bed took out a manila envelope sealed in wax with the emblem of the national telegraph. It was enough for Fermina Daza to see her cousin’s expression of radiant 28)malice for the 29)pensive scent of white gardenias to grow again in her heart’s memory, and then she tore the red sealing wax with her teeth and drenched the eleven forbidden telegrams in a shower of tears until dawn.
Then he knew. Before starting out on the journey, Lorenzo Daza had made the mistake of telegraphing the news to his brother-in-law Lisímaco Sánchez, and he in turn had sent the news to his vast and intricate network of kinfolk in numerous towns and villages throughout the province. So that Florentino Ariza not only learned the complete 30)itinerary, but also established an extensive brotherhood of telegraph operators who would follow the trail of Fermina Daza to the last settlement in Cabo de la Vela. This allowed him to maintain intensive communications with her from the time of her arrival in Valledupar.
After their prolonged stay in Valledupar they continued their journey through the foothills of the mountains, crossing flowering meadows and dreamlike mesas, and in all the villages they were received as they had been in the first, with music and fireworks and new conspiratorial cousins and punctual messages in the telegraph offices. Fermina Daza soon realized that the afternoon of their arrival in Valledupar had not been unusual, but rather that in this fertile province every day of the week was lived as if it were a holiday. The visitors slept wherever they happened to be at nightfall, and they ate wherever they happened to be hungry, for these were houses with open doors, where there was always a hammock hanging and a three-meat stew simmering on the stove in case guests arrived before the telegram announcing their arrival; as was almost always the case. Hildebranda Sánchez accompanied her cousin for the remainder of the trip, guiding her with joyful spirit through the tangled complexities of her blood to the very source of her origins. Fermina Daza learned about herself, she felt free for the first time, she felt herself befriended and protected, her lungs full of the air of liberty, which restored her tranquillity and her will to live. In her final years she would still recall the trip that, with the perverse lucidity of nostalgia, became more and more recent in her memory. 夜半时分，来访的客人相继离开，狂欢的人群也三三两两地散去。伊尔德布兰达表姐借给费尔明娜一件马大普兰亚麻棉织睡袍，扶她躺在一张铺着整洁床单的床上，枕着羽毛枕。冷不防地，这突如其来的幸福让她顿时惊惶无措。终于，房中只剩下她们两人了。表姐插上门闩，从床席下取出一个马尼拉纸信封来，上面盖着国家电报局的火漆封印。只看了一眼表姐脸上那光芒四射的神秘兮兮的表情，一股沁人肺腑的白色栀子花香便在费尔明娜的心头复苏了。她用牙将火漆印章咬得粉碎，泪水淌在那十一封言辞大胆的电报上，就这样，她沉浸在眼泪汇成的汪洋中，直到天明。
原来，他什么都知道。洛伦索·达萨在旅行前犯了一个错误，他通过电报把行程告诉了小舅子利希马科·桑切斯，后者又把消息传给了人数众多、关系复杂、分布在全省各个村庄和角落里的亲戚们。于是，弗洛伦蒂诺·阿里萨不仅了解到他们的整个路线，还建立起一条长长的电报员兄弟战线，一心追寻费尔明娜·达萨的踪迹，一直到他们之前落脚的烛头村。而自从费尔明娜来到巴耶杜帕尔镇，弗洛伦蒂诺便得以和她频繁通信。
在巴耶杜帕尔镇逗留了很长一段时间后，他们继续旅行，翻山越岭，穿过鲜花盛开的草原和梦境般的高原。在所到的每个村庄，他们都受到和第一站同样的欢迎，音乐、鞭炮、新一拨串通一气的表姐妹，以及电报局里准时到达的信件。很快，费尔明娜·达萨发现他们到达巴耶杜帕尔的那个下午并不是特例，在这个富饶的省份，每一天人们都像在过节。来此地的客人天黑时随处都可睡下，饿了也随时都有饭吃，因为家家户户大门都是敞开的，屋里都挂着吊床，炉子上都炖着一锅热气腾腾的三肉炖杂烩，以防哪位客人在通知来访的电报到达之前就到了，而这是常有的事。伊尔德布兰达·桑切斯在余下的旅程中一路陪伴着表妹，兴致勃勃地向她讲述家族血脉的复杂渊源，一直追溯到她的血缘来头。费尔明娜·达萨重新认识了自己，第一次感觉到成为自己的主人，感觉到被陪伴和被保护，胸中充满自由的气息，这让她恢复了宁静，又有了活下去的愿望。甚至到了暮年，她还会想起那次旅行，而且记忆犹新，越来越历历在目。
