了不起的盖茨比（与黛西的会面过程）
at 3年前 ca 了不起的盖茨比英文原文 pv 2249 by 菲茨杰拉德
With his hands still in his coat pockets he stalked by me into the hall, turned sharply as if he were on a wire, and disappeared into the living-room. It wasn’t a bit funny. Aware of the loud beating of my own heart I pulled the door to against the increasing rain.
他昂首阔步地从我身旁走过，进了门廊，手还揣在外衣口袋里，仿佛走钢丝一般，突然转身一溜烟走进了客厅里。这下可一点也不逗了。我意识到自己的心也在扑通扑通跳。我关上了门，挡住外面越下越大的雨。
For half a minute there wasn’t a sound. Then from the living-room I heard a sort of choking murmur and part of a laugh, followed by Daisy’s voice on a clear artificial note:
有半分钟之久，屋里鸦雀无声。然后我听到从客厅里传来一阵哽咽似的低语声和一点笑声，跟着就是黛西的嘹亮而做作的声音：
“I certainly am awfully glad to see you again.”
"再见到你，我真是太高兴了。"
A pause; it endured horribly. I had nothing to do in the hall, so I went into the room.
接着是一阵静寂。时间长得可怕。我在门廊里无事可做，还是进了屋子。
Gatsby, his hands still in his pockets, was reclining against the mantelpiece in a strained counterfeit of perfect ease, even of boredom. His head leaned back so far that it rested against the face of a defunct mantelpiece clock, and from this position his distraught eyes stared down at Daisy, who was sitting, frightened but graceful, on the edge of a stiff chair.
Recline：斜倚;斜躺;向后倚靠。Counterfeit： 仿造;假冒。defunct：不再存在的;不再起作用的;不再使用的。Distraught：心烦意乱的;心急如焚的;发狂的。
“We’ve met before,” muttered Gatsby. His eyes glanced momentarily at me, and his lips parted with an abortive attempt at a laugh. Luckily the clock took this moment to tilt dangerously at the pressure of his head, whereupon he turned and caught it with trembling fingers, and set it back in place. Then he sat down, rigidly, his elbow on the arm of the sofa and his chin in his hand.
"我们以前见过。"盖茨比喃喃道。他瞥了我一眼，嘴唇张开想笑又没笑出来。这时那架钟由于被他的脑袋压得摇摇欲坠，幸好他赶紧转过身，用颤抖的手指把钟抓住，放回原处。然后他坐了下来，身板僵直，胳臂肘放在沙发扶手上，手支着下巴。
“I’m sorry about the clock,” he said.
"对不起，把钟碰了。"他说。
My own face had now assumed a deep tropical burn. I couldn’t muster up a single commonplace out of the thousand in my head.
我自己的脸红得像被热带的太阳晒过，纵有千百句客套话，此刻也说不出一句。
“It’s an old clock,” I told them idiotically.
Idiotically：十分愚蠢地;白痴般地。
"是一架很旧的钟。"我呆呆地告诉他们。
I think we all believed for a moment that it had smashed in pieces on the floor.
我想我们都有那么一会儿，以为那架钟已经在地板上摔成了碎片了。
“We haven’t met for many years,” said Daisy, her voice as matter-of-fact as it could ever be.
"我们多年不见了。"黛西说，她的声音尽可能地波澜不惊。
“Five years next November.”
"到十一月整整五年。"
The automatic quality of Gatsby’s answer set us all back at least another minute. I had them both on their feet with the desperate suggestion that they help me make tea in the kitchen when the demoniac Finn brought it in on a tray.
盖茨比机械般的随机回答至少使我们大家又愣了一分钟。我急中生智，建议他们到厨房里帮我准备茶点，他们俩立刻站了起来，正在这时那魔鬼般的芬兰女佣人用托盘把茶端了进来。
Amid the welcome confusion of cups and cakes a certain physical decency established itself. Gatsby got himself into a shadow and, while Daisy and I talked, looked conscientiously from one to the other of us with tense, unhappy eyes. However, as calmness wasn’t an end in itself, I made an excuse at the first possible moment, and got to my feet.
接着忙着递茶杯、传蛋糕，大家对这一阵忙乱颇为接受，在忙乱之中举止也算得体。当我跟黛西交谈时，盖茨比躲进阴影里去了，他那焦急的眼神认真地来回看着我们俩。可是，因为平静毕竟不是目的，于是我见机找了个借口，站起身来要走。
“Where are you going?” demanded Gatsby in immediate alarm.
"你上哪儿去？"盖茨比立刻警醒地责问道。
“I’ll be back.”
"我会回来的。"
“I’ve got to speak to you about something before you go.”
"你先别走，我要跟你说点事。"
He followed me wildly into the kitchen, closed the door, and whispered:“Oh, God!” in a miserable way.
他发疯似的跟我走进厨房，关上了门，然后很痛苦地低声说："啊，天哪！"
“What’s the matter?”
"怎么了？"
“This is a terrible mistake,” he said, shaking his head from side to side, “a terrible, terrible mistake.”
"这很糟糕，"他把头摇来摇去地说，"简直是错得离谱。"
“You’re just embarrassed, that’s all,” and luckily I added: “Daisy’s embarrassed too.”
"你不过是不好意思罢了，没别的。"还好我又补了一句，"黛西也不好意思。"
“She’s embarrassed?” he repeated incredulously.
"她不好意思？"他难以置信地重复道。
“Just as much as you are.”
"跟你同样尴尬。"
“Don’t talk so loud.”
"声音不要那么大。"
“You’re acting like a little boy,” I broke out impatiently. “Not only that, but you’re rude. Daisy’s sitting in there all alone.”
"你现在像个毛头小子，"我不耐烦地脱口而出，"不但如此，你也很没礼貌。黛西这会儿孤零零一个人坐在那。"
He raised his hand to stop my words, looked at me with unforgettable reproach, and, opening the door cautiously, went back into the other room.
他抬起手来不让我再讲下去，责怪地看着我，那眼神我真是难忘，然后战战兢兢地打开了门，又回到那边房间。
I walked out the back way—just as Gatsby had when he had made his nervous circuit of the house half an hour before—and ran for a huge black knotted tree, whose massed leaves made a fabric against the rain. Once more it was pouring, and my irregular lawn, well-shaved by Gatsby’s gardener, abounded in small, muddy swamps and prehistoric marshes. There was nothing to look at from under the tree except Gatsby’s enormous house, so I stared at it, like Kant at his church steeple, for half an hour. A brewer had built it early in the “period.” craze, a decade before, and there was a story that he’d agreed to pay five years’ taxes on all the neighboring cottages if the owners would have their roofs thatched with straw. Perhaps their refusal took the heart out of his plan to Found a Family—he went into an immediate decline. His children sold his house with the black wreath still on the door. Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry.
我从后门走了出去--半小时前盖茨比也正是从这里出去，精神紧张地绕着房子转了一圈——跑向一棵黑黝黝的盘根错节的大树，那树叶非常茂密，足以似挡雨布那样遮蔽了。此刻雨又下大了，我那片乱糟糟的草地，虽然被盖茨比的园丁修剪得很整齐，现在却满是小泥坑和已有时日的沼泽了。从树下望去，除了盖茨比的大别墅之外，不见其他之物，于是我盯着它看了半个小时，好像康德①盯着教堂尖塔一样。这座房子是十年前一位酿酒商在"复古热"的年代早期建造的，传闻说他曾答应为所有邻近的村舍缴五年的税款，只要各位房主肯在屋顶铺上茅草。也许他们的拒绝使他“创立家业”的心愿毁于一旦——他的健康立刻就恶化了。。他的花圈还挂在门上，他的子女就把房子卖掉了。美国人时常乐于当农奴，但一向坚决不肯当农民的。
注释：在中世纪的封建等级制度中，农民实际上比农奴更自由，而农奴更像奴隶。尼克的话因此具有讽刺意味。美国人宁愿被农奴制束缚，被地主奴役，也不愿意显得贫穷（农民）。
①康德（Immanul Kant，1724-1804），德国哲学家。
After half an hour, the sun shone again, and the grocer’s automobile rounded Gatsby’s drive with the raw material for his servants’ dinner—I felt sure he wouldn’t eat a spoonful. A maid began opening the upper windows of his house, appeared momentarily in each, and, leaning from a large central bay, spat meditatively into the garden. It was time I went back. While the rain continued it had seemed like the murmur of their voices, rising and swelling a little now and then with gusts of emotion. But in the new silence I felt that silence had fallen within the house too.
半小时后，雨过天晴，食品店的汽车沿着盖茨比的汽车道拐弯，送来他的仆人做晚餐用的原料--我敢肯定他自己一口也吃不下。一个女佣人开始打开楼上的窗户，在每个窗口都闪现一下，然后，从正中的大窗户探出身子，若有所思地向花园里啐了一口。该是我回去的时候了。刚才雨下个不停，仿佛是俩人低语声，不时随着情绪激昂的迸发，微微提高了分贝。不过，在这刚刚到来的静谧之中，我感觉屋里也安静下来了。
I went in—after making every possible noise in the kitchen, short of pushing over the stove—but I don’t believe they heard a sound. They were sitting at either end of the couch, looking at each other as if some question had been asked, or was in the air, and every vestige of embarrassment was gone. Daisy’s face was smeared with tears, and when I came in she jumped up and began wiping at it with her handkerchief before a mirror. But there was a change in Gatsby that was simply confounding. He literally glowed; without a word or a gesture of exultation a new well-being radiated from him and filled the little room.
Glow：[ɡləʊ] 喜形于色；心满意足。Exultation：[ˌeɡzʌlˈteɪʃn] 欢欣鼓舞；兴高采烈。
我走了进去--先在厨房里做出一切可能的噪音，就差把炉灶推翻了--但我相信他们什么也没听见。他们两人分别坐在长沙发两端，面面相觑，好像刚刚谁提了什么问题，或者这问题悬而未决，一切尴尬的迹象也都消失了。黛西满面泪痕，我一进来她就跳了起来，拿手帕对着镜子擦拭起脸来。但是盖茨比身上却发生了一种令人惊疑的变化。他简直是容光焕发。虽未表现出欣喜之姿，但一种新的幸福感从他身上散发出来，飘荡在那间小房间的每一处。
“Oh, hello, old sport,” he said, as if he hadn’t seen me for years. I thought for a moment he was going to shake hands.
"哦，你好啊，老兄。"他说，仿佛他有好多年没见过我了。有一会儿工夫我还以为他要过来和我握手呢。
“It’s stopped raining.”
"雨停了。"
“Has it?” When he realized what I was talking about, that there were twinkle-bells of sunshine in the room, he smiled like a weather man, like an ecstatic patron of recurrent light, and repeated the news to Daisy. “What do you think of that? It’s stopped raining.”
"是吗？"等他反应过来我在说什么，又发觉屋里洒满了灿烂的阳光时，他笑得像一个气象预报员，又像一个因光明重放而欣喜若狂的守护神，接着他把这消息转报给黛西，"你觉得怎么样？，雨停了。"
“I’m glad, Jay.” Her throat, full of aching, grieving beauty, told only of her unexpected joy.
"我很高兴，杰伊。"她的声音满是哀伤，楚楚动人，可是她流露于口的只有意外之喜。
“I want you and Daisy to come over to my house,” he said, “I’d like to show her around.”
"我要你和黛西一起到我家里来，"他说，"我很想领她参观参观。"
“You’re sure you want me to come?”
"你确定要我来吗？"
“Absolutely, old sport.”
"当然了，老兄。"
Daisy went up-stairs to wash her face—too late I thought with humiliation of my towels—while Gatsby and I waited on the lawn.
黛西上楼去洗脸--我很羞惭地想起了我的毛巾，但已经晚了--盖茨比和我在草坪上等他。
“My house looks well, doesn’t it?” he demanded. “See how the whole front of it catches the light.”
"我的房子还不错吧？"他问道，"你瞧它整个正面被阳光照得多有光彩。"
I agreed that it was splendid.
我同意，确实金碧辉煌。
“Yes.” His eyes went over it, every arched door and square tower. “It took me just three years to earn the money that bought it.”
"是的。"他的目光扫过那房子，每个拱门和方塔都看了看，"我只花了三年工夫就挣到了买房子的钱。"
“I thought you inherited your money.”
"我还以为你的钱是继承来的。"
“I did, old sport,” he said automatically, “but I lost most of it in the big panic—the panic of the war.”
"不错，老兄，"他脱口而出，"但是我在大恐慌期间损失了一大半--就是战争引起的那次大恐慌。"
I think he hardly knew what he was saying, for when I asked him what business he was in he answered, “That’s my affair,” before he realized that it wasn’t the appropriate reply.
我猜他并不知道自己在说什么，因为当我问他做的是什么生意时，他回答："那是我的事儿。"话说出口他才发觉这个回答很不妥当。
“Oh, I’ve been in several things,” he corrected himself. “I was in the drug business and then I was in the oil business. But I’m not in either one now.” He looked at me with more attention. “Do you mean you’ve been thinking over what I proposed the other night?”
"哦，我干过好几行，"他改口说，"我卖过药品，后来又做过石油生意。不过现在我两样都不做了。"他更加专注地看着我。"那么说你一直在考虑那天晚上我提的建议？"
Before I could answer, Daisy came out of the house and two rows of brass buttons on her dress gleamed in the sunlight.
我还没来得及回答，黛西就从房子里出来了，她衣服上的两排铜纽扣在阳光下闪闪发光。
“That huge place THERE?” she cried pointing.
"是那边那个大房子？"她用手指着大声问。
“Do you like it?”
"你喜欢吗？"
“I love it, but I don’t see how you live there all alone.”
"我太喜欢了，但是我不明白你怎么能一个人住在那儿。"
“I keep it always full of interesting people, night and day. People who do interesting things. Celebrated people.”
"我让房子不分昼夜都挤满了有趣的人，那些人做的事情都很有意思。他们全是名人。"
Instead of taking the short cut along the Sound we went down the road and entered by the big postern. With enchanting murmurs Daisy admired this aspect or that of the feudal silhouette against the sky, admired the gardens, the sparkling odor of jonquils and the frothy odor of hawthorn and plum blossoms and the pale gold odor of kiss-me-at-the-gate. It was strange to reach the marble steps and find no stir of bright dresses in and out the door, and hear no sound but bird voices in the trees.
Jonquil：长寿花。Hawthorn：[ˈhɔːθɔːn] 山楂树。plum blossom ：梅花。kiss-me-at-the-gate：忍冬，别称： 金银花（本草纲目）。
我们没有沿着海边抄近路过去，而是绕到大路上，从巨大的后门进去的。黛酉望着在蓝天映衬下的这座封建庄园黑黝黝的轮廓，用她那迷人的嗓音低语着，边走边赞赏花园，赞赏长寿花明亮灿烂的香气、山楂和梅花丰盈如泡沫的香气，还有金银花淡金浮幽的香气。当我们走到大理石台阶前，不见一个身穿华服之人从门口出出进进，除了树梢间的鸟鸣以外，听不到一点声音，甚是奇异。
And inside, as we wandered through Marie Antoinette music-rooms and Restoration salons, I felt that there were guests concealed behind every couch and table, under orders to be breathlessly silent until we had passed through. As Gatsby closed the door of “the Merton College Library.” I could have sworn I heard the owl-eyed man break into ghostly laughter.
到了里面，我们漫步穿过玛丽·安托瓦内特①式的音乐厅和王政复辟时期②式样的小客厅，我觉得每张沙发、每张桌子后面都藏着客人，正奉命屏息噤声，静待我们过去。当盖茨比关上"墨顿学院图书室"③的大门时，我可以发誓我听到了那个猫头鹰眼镜男发出幽灵般的大笑声。
①玛丽·安托万内特（Marie Antoinette，1755-1793），法国国王路易十六的王后，在大革命中被送上断头台。
②英国门世纪中叶第一次资产阶级革命失败后，英王查理二世于1660年复辟。
③墨顿学院（Merton College），牛津大学的一个学院，以藏书丰富闻名。
We went up-stairs, through period bedrooms swathed in rose and lavender silk and vivid with new flowers, through dressing-rooms and poolrooms, and bathrooms with sunken baths—intruding into one chamber where a dishevelled man in pajamas was doing liver exercises on the floor. It was Mr. Klipspringer, the “boarder.” I had seen him wandering hungrily about the beach that morning. Finally we came to Gatsby’s own apartment, a bedroom and a bath, and an Adam study, where we sat down and drank a glass of some Chartreuse he took from a cupboard in the wall.
Chartreuse：根据弗朗索瓦·安尼巴尔·德埃斯特雷斯（François Annibal d'Estrées）1605年手稿中所言，卡图西亚僧侣自1737年就开始酿造这种酒。它是以僧侣们的大查特雷希修道院命名的，它位于法国格勒诺布尔一般地区的沙特雷西山上。
我们走上楼，穿过一间间复古风格的卧室，里面铺满了玫红色和淡紫色的绸缎，摆满了生机盎然的鲜花，穿过一间间换衣间和台球室，以及配有嵌入式浴池的浴室—途中我们闯进一间卧室，里面有一个邋里邋遢的人，正穿着睡衣在地板上做肝脏保健运动。那是"寄宿生"克里普斯普林杰先生。那天早上我还看见他面带饥色地在海滩上闲逛。最后我们来到盖茨比本人的套间，包括一间卧室、一间浴室和一间亚当式小书房。我们在书房里坐下，喝了一杯他从橱柜里拿出来的查特酒。
He hadn’t once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes. Sometimes, too, he stared around at his possessions in a dazed way, as though in her actual and astounding presence none of it was any longer real. Once he nearly toppled down a flight of stairs.
他一刻不停地看着黛西，因此我想他是在把房子里的所有东西都按照黛西那双饱尝爱意的明眸所做出的反应重新估值。有时他也神情恍惚地环顾自己的财物，仿佛在她这个慑他心魂的真人面前，其他一切都变得不真实了。有一次他差点从一截台阶上摔下去。
His bedroom was the simplest room of all—except where the dresser was garnished with a toilet set of pure dull gold. Daisy took the brush with delight, and smoothed her hair, whereupon Gatsby sat down and shaded his eyes and began to laugh.
他自己的卧室是所有屋间中最简朴的一间--只有梳妆台上点缀着一套纯金暗灼的梳妆用具。黛西高兴地拿起了梳子整理起头发，引得盖茨比坐下来用手遮住眼睛笑了起来。
“It’s the funniest thing, old sport,” he said hilariously. “I can’t—When I try to——”
Hilariously：extremely funny。
"这真是太有意思了，老兄，"他捧腹笑道，"我简直不能……当我想要……"。
He had passed visibly through two states and was entering upon a third. After his embarrassment and his unreasoning joy he was consumed with wonder at her presence. He had been full of the idea so long, dreamed it right through to the end, waited with his teeth set, so to speak, at an inconceivable pitch of intensity. Now, in the reaction, he was running down like an overwound clock.
显而易见，他已经历了两种精神状态，此刻正进入第三种。他起初局促不安，继而莫名欢喜，目前又为了黛西现身于此而惊奇不已。。他对这场重逢长年朝思暮想，梦寐以求，简直是咬紧了牙关期待着，可以说是紧绷到了一个不可思议的程度。此刻，由于这股劲起了反作用，他像一架发条上得太紧的时钟，正逐渐松弛下来。
Recovering himself in a minute he opened for us two hulking patent cabinets which held his massed suits and dressing-gowns and ties, and his shirts, piled like bricks in stacks a dozen high.
过了一会儿，他平复下来了，他为我们打开了两个考究的巨大衣柜，里面装满了他的西装、睡袍和领带，还有一打一打像砖头一样堆起来的衬衣。
“I’ve got a man in England who buys me clothes. He sends over a selection of things at the beginning of each season, spring and fall.”
"我有一个人在英国帮我买衣服。每年春秋两季的季初，他都挑选一些服饰寄给我。"
He took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them, one by one, before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel, which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table in many-colored disarray. While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher—shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange, and monograms of Indian blue. Suddenly, with a strained sound, Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily.
他抱出一沓衬衫，开始一件一件扔在我们面前，薄麻布衬衫、厚绸衬衫、细法兰绒衬衫都抖散了，五颜六色摆满了一桌。我们正欣赏着，他又抱出更多衬衫，那柔软昂贵的衣堆就垒得更高了——什么条纹衬衫、涡卷花纹衬衫、格子衬衫，有珊瑚红的、苹果绿的、薰衣草紫的、淡橙色的，件件都用印度蓝的丝线，绣着由他姓名首字母组成的图案。突然间，黛西尖叫了一声，一下把头埋进衬衫堆里，号陶大哭起来。
“They’re such beautiful shirts,” she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. “It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such—such beautiful shirts before.”
"这些衬衫这么美，"她呜咽地说，她的声音在厚厚的衣堆里显得沉闷暗哑，"我看了很伤心，因为我从来没见过这么--这么美的衬衫。"
After the house, we were to see the grounds and the swimming-pool, and the hydroplane and the mid-summer flowers—but outside Gatsby’s window it began to rain again, so we stood in a row looking at the corrugated surface of the Sound.
Corrugate：起皱的；波状的。
参观完房子，我们本来还要去看看庭园和游泳池、水上飞机和仲夏的繁花--但是盖茨比的窗外又下起雨来了，因此我们三人就站成一排眺望长岛海峡那波涛起伏的海面。。
“If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your home across the bay,” said Gatsby. “You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock.”
"要不是有雾，我们可以看见海湾对面你家的房子，"盖茨比说，"你家码头的尽头总有一盏绿灯彻夜闪着光。"
Daisy put her arm through his abruptly, but he seemed absorbed in what he had just said. Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.
Colossal：[kəˈlɒsl] 巨大的;庞大的。Enchant：[ɪnˈtʃɑːnt] 使着迷;使陶醉。
黛西忽然伸过胳臂去挽着他的胳臂，但他似乎沉浸在他方才所说的话里。也许他骤然发现，那束绿光的重大意义，此刻已永远地消失了。与之前将他与黛西分开的遥远距离相比，那盏绿灯曾经似乎离她很近，几乎能触碰到她。那就像一颗星离月亮那么近。现在它只不过是码头上的一盏绿灯了。他为之魂牵梦萦的魔物，已然少了一样。
