愛在瘟疫蔓延時 Love in the Time of Cholera; El amor en los tiempos del cólera
作者 加布列.賈西亞.馬奎斯 Gabriel García Márquez
譯者:姜鳳光，蔣宗曹
這份愛情，和霍亂一起跨越了半個世紀
烏爾比諾醫師在為了抓住失蹤的鸚鵡而跌落樹木慘死後，阿里薩出現在喪禮，對著遺孀費米娜表達持續了半個世紀的忠貞愛情。這是一本愛情小說，但與一般描寫年輕人轟轟烈烈的愛情不同，馬奎斯鉅細靡遺的將兩人年少時期懵懂慌張的愛情，到成年後成熟的感情，至老年後還存在且依舊溫暖的愛，全部描述出來，讓讀者全程參與這半世紀的愛情，彷彿就在旁邊觀看一樣。
阿里薩對於費米娜可以說是一見鍾情，很常見的貧富階級差距的相遇，但費米娜很幸運，在她嚴謹的淑女家教生活中有個希望她能夠好好體會一次轟轟烈烈愛情的姑姑，在姑姑的幫忙下，他們互相寫信，互相分享身邊事物，但我發現，他們其實幾乎沒有面對面講過一次話，或許是因為當時文化與民風，也可能是因為費米娜其實不像阿里薩一樣一眼就陷入深深的愛中無法自拔。
在費米娜被父親強制分手並在一段長途旅行歸來後，結識了烏爾比諾醫生，這位醫生其實也對她一見鍾情，不過烏爾比諾醫生的階級地位顯然讓費米娜父親更加喜歡，也在半撮合下兩人成婚。但婚後生活似乎也沒有外界說的那麼美滿，費米娜也遇到婆媳問題、姑嫂困擾，也曾經想過要分手，對於丈夫的生活習慣也有抱怨，但她也在購物與囤積稀奇珍品、養寵物這幾件事找到抒發管道。
再來看阿里薩，他在失去費米娜後有很長一段時間異常落魄，在很糟的狀況下去了叔父的航運公司工作，也在人生輾轉中慢慢往上爬，結識許多不同的女人，與其有親密關係或是一段戀曲。但阿里薩其實也忘不了費米娜，也在許多公開場合遇見，卻也總是被費米娜恭謹有禮的態度傷了心。
最後在老年時，阿里薩再度去尋找費米娜，他們從朋友開始，慢慢融入對方的生活，沒有年少時那份激動即將炸裂的濃烈情感，卻有老年時那獨特、永恆又溫暖的愛在其中。而書中不斷形容霍亂的狀況與各種防疫政策等等，似乎也是將愛情比喻成一種霍亂，因為阿里薩在得相思病時的病徵跟霍亂很像，也是否代表，一如當時無法好好治療霍亂一樣，我們也很難去治療因為愛情帶來的傷痛。
The love lasted a half century like the cholera.
Not like the original romantic novel, there were always a young couple who have the most romantic story of the world, while Marquez wrote the book of the elders’ love that have crossed a half century. He described Ariza and Fermina, the two people their young love at teenage period to the mature relationship conception of adult life, in the end he described the deep love between old man and old woman.
It was said that Ariza had a crush on Fermina at the first sight. As the same to other novel, there was a barrier called the class gap between them. Fortunately, Fermina had an aunt who hoped her can experience the exciting love at least once. She helped the couple pass the letters and sharing their daily stuff though they might haven’t spoken to each other.
After Fermina was disagreed by her father to be in together with Ariza and finished their long travel and go back home, they met the doctor Urbino. Urbino was a gentlemen that he quickly got Fermina’s father’s approval. While actually I think Urbino had a great chance that he had a crush on Fermina as well in his first sight. However, after they got married, the life wasn’t such perfect as Fermina also had met the inflection between Urbino’s family, she also wanted to break up. But she finally found her way to solve the problem by buying some precious stuff and keeping some animals.
As for Ariza, his missing to Fermina performed liked he got the cholera after losing Fermina. He worked in his granduncle’s company in a bad situation. During these years, his career developed greater and he also met a lot of women. Moreover, he even had sex and relationship with them. He still could not forget Fermina as he sometimes met her in some public places, though he often got hurt by Fermina’s polite manners.
In the end, after Urbino’s strange death of desiring to catch his parrot on the tree, they became friends at first. Then their love developed so soft that did not like the exciting felling in their teenage time. Hence, Marquez wrote the warm and soft love between two old people so well like we can experience their love through 50 years together.
Maybe in the story, Marquez wanted to present that the love was like the cholera that during that time we could not heal it perfectly.
