الجنرال فى المتاهة - جابرييل جارسيا ماركيز

"The General in His Labyrinth"
 "by "Gabriel García Márquez

( 1 )

  Bolívar's death by
 Antonio Herrera Tora (1889)

"Jose Palacios had been in the bedroom while the General dictated his will. Neither he nor anyone else said a word during an act imbued with sacramental solemnity.

But that night, while the General was in the emollient bath, Jose Palacios pleaded with him to change his bequest. 

"We have always been poor and we haven't needed anything," he told him. 

"The truth is just the opposite," said the General. "We have always been rich and we haven't anything left." 

"كان جوزيه بالاسيوس موجودا فى الغرفة عندما املى الجنرال وصيته . و لم ينطق هو و لا احد غيره بكلمة اثناء ذلك العمل المقدس ، و لكنه توسل الى الجنرال و هو يأخذ حمامه المهدىء فى المساء بأن يغير رغباته قائلا:

- كنا دائما فقيرين و لم نفتقر ابدا الى شئ.

- قال له الجنرال : بل على العكس كنا ثريين ، و لم نشعر بحاجتنا ابدا الى المزيد."

*PHOTO: Bolívar's death by Venezuelan painter Antonio Herrera Toro,(1889).

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( 2 )

“In his paradise in Lima he had spent a joyous night with a young girl who was covered with fine, straight down over every millimeter of her Bedouin skin.

The Coast of Miraflores in Lima
Peru

At dawn, while he was shaving, he looked at her lying naked in the bed, adrift in the peaceful sleep of a satisfied woman, and he could not resist the temptation of possessing her forever with a sacramental act.

He covered her from head to foot with shaving lather, and with a pleasure like that of love he shaved her clean with his razor, sometimes using his right hand and sometimes his left as he shaved every part of her body, even the eyebrows that grew together, and left her doubly naked inside her magnificent newborn's body. 

She asked, her soul in shreds, if he really loved her, and he answered with the same ritual phrase he had strewn without pity in so many hearts throughout his life: "More than anyone else in this world.” 

"فى جنته بليما ، قضى ليلة كلها سعادة مع فتاة بدوية جسدها كله يكسوه زغب رفيع. و فى الفجر ، بينما كان يحلق ذقنه ، تأملها و هى عارية فى الفراش ، تحلق فى حلم هادئ لأمرأة أشبعت رغباتها. و لم يقاوم رغبته فى ان يمتلكها ثانية ، و غطاها برغوة من الصابون من قدميها حتى رأسها ، و فى نشوة الحب حلق كل جسدها ، تارة بيده اليمنى ، و تارة بيده اليسري ، ملليمترا بعد ملليمتر ، حتي حاجبها ، و تركها عارية للمرة الثانية ، بجسدها الرائع لطفل وليد ، و سألته بروح مختلخة ان كان يحبها فأجابها بنفس العبارة العادية التى ظل يرددها طول حياته على الكثير من القلوب دون أية شفقة: " أكثر من أية امرأة اخرى فى العالم".

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( 3 )

"رحماك يا الله !! كيف الخروج من هذه المتاهة".

"Damn it,' he sighed.

'How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!"

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Photographer

  Maxim Kalmyko

( 4 )

"You're a great man, General. greater than anyone,

But love is still too big for you."

"انت رجل عظيم يا صاحب الفخامة ، 

أعظم من أى شخص أخر ، 

و لكن الحب كبير جدا عليك."

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( 5 )

"I'll never fall in love again... it's like having two souls at the same time."

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