Florentino Ariza had stripped her of the virginity of a conventional marriage, more pernicious than congenital virginity or the abstinence of widowhood. He had taught her that nothing one does in bed is immoral if it helps to perpetuate love. And something else that from that time on would be her reason for living: he convinced her that one comes into the world with a predetermined allotment of lays, and whoever does not use them for whatever reason, one’s own or someone else’s, willingly or unwillingly, loses them forever … . After six months of furious lovemaking with the Widow Nazaret, Florentino Ariza himself was convinced that he had survived the torment of Fermina Daza. He not only believed it, he also discussed it several times with Tránsito Ariza during the two years of Fermina Daza’s wedding trip, and he continued to believe it with a feeling of boundless freedom until one fateful Sunday when, with no warning and no presentiments, he saw her leaving High Mass on her husband’s arm, besieged by the curiosity and flattery of her new world.
Florentino Ariza la había despojado de la virginidad de un matrimonio convencional, que era más perniciosa que la virginidad congénita y la abstinencia de la viudez. Le había enseñado que nada de lo que se haga en la cama es inmoral si contribuye a perpetuar el amor. Y algo que había de ser desde entonces la razón de su vida: la convenció de que uno viene al mundo con sus polvos contados, y los que no se usan por cualquier causa, propia o ajena, voluntaria o forzosa, se pierden para siempre… El propio Florentino Ariza estaba convencido al cabo de seis meses de amores desaforados con la viuda de Nazaret, de que había logrado sobrevivir al tormento de Fermina Daza. No sólo lo creyó, sino que lo comentó varias veces con Tránsito Ariza durante los casi dos años que duró el viaje de bodas, y siguió creyéndolo con un sentimiento de liberación sin fronteras, hasta un domingo de su mala estrella en que la vio de pronto sin ningún anuncio del corazón, cuando salía de la misa mayor del brazo de su marido y asediada por la curiosidad y los halagos de su nuevo mundo.
From “Love in the Time of Cholera,” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Florentino Ariza believes that he could use lust to overcome his love for Fermina Daza, who has rejected him. But all the formidable defenses that he built around his heart for several years to forget her shatter into pieces when he sees her coming out of the church. This shows the power of love. Lust lasts a few days, weeks, and seldom months while love remains in our souls in one way or another forever. I have continued my exception and featured this snippet to pay homage to Gabriel Garcia Marquez on his death. We all owe him so much. The freshness of his prose, the strength of his verbs, the poetry of his adjectives make his writings unique.
