了不起的盖茨比（贝达克小姐和希维特医生）

导读：

星期六晚上，汤姆和黛西参加盖茨比的聚会。虽然汤姆不愿和盖茨比打交道，但为了监视黛西，他还是跟着过来了。

宴会期间，贝德克小姐喝得烂醉，大喊大叫，毫不顾虑其他人的感受，也不顾虑自己的健康，好像试图在酒中寻找慰藉。这说明纽约的富人表面上过着光鲜亮丽的生活，其实是颓废不堪的。这也进一步表明，纽约的富人宁愿在酒中寻找虚假的快乐，也不愿在现实中拥有真实的情感。

贝德克小姐还提到了希维特医生那发抖的手，看来这位医生也是长期嗜酒。在第四章的开头，尼克提到了1922年夏天参加盖茨比聚会的宾客名单，其中就有Doctor Webster Civet。他住在东卵，最后在缅因州溺水身亡。具有讽刺意味的是，希维特医生开贝达克小姐溺水的玩笑，而这正是他失去生命的原因。    

   Tom was evidently perturbed at Daisy’s running around alone, for on the following Saturday night he came with her to Gatsby’s party. Perhaps his presence gave the evening its peculiar quality of oppressiveness—it stands out in my memory from Gatsby’s other parties that summer. There were the same people, or at least the same sort of people, the same profusion of champagne, the same many-colored, many-keyed commotion, but I felt an unpleasantness in the air, a pervading harshness that hadn’t been there before. Or perhaps I had merely grown used to it, grown to accept West Egg as a world complete in itself, with its own standards and its own great figures, second to nothing because it had no consciousness of being so, and now I was looking at it again, through Daisy’s eyes. It is invariably saddening to look through new eyes at things upon which you have expended your own powers of adjustment.

★Perturbed：[pəˈtɜːbd] 使焦虑;使不安。★Profusion：[prəˈfjuːʒn] 大量;众多。★Pervading：渗透;弥漫;遍及。

    汤姆明显不放心黛西独自乱跑，因为接下来的周六晚上，他就跟着黛西一同参加盖茨比的晚会。也许是由于他的在场，那次晚会有一种压抑气氛--它鲜明地留在我记忆里，不同于那个夏天盖茨比所举办的其他宴会。在宴会上，来的还是那些人，或者至少是同一类人，有同样畅饮不尽的香摈、同样形形色色、此起彼伏的喧闹，可是我觉得气氛中有不悦的成分，弥漫着一股肃杀之气，这是以前从未有过的。要不然，或许只是我对这一切习以为常，逐渐认为西卵是一个独立完整的世界，自有它独特的标准和了不起的人，而正因为这里的人并未意识到自己是多么独一无二，这里才显得首屈一指。而此刻我却通过黛西的眼睛再次去看这一切。要通过新的眼睛去检视你已经耗费很多气力才适应的事物，那总是令人难受的。

　　They arrived at twilight, and, as we strolled out among the sparkling hundreds, Daisy’s voice was playing murmurous tricks in her throat.

    他们在黄昏时刻到达，然后当我们漫步于无数珠光宝气的客人之间时，黛西的声音在她喉咙里玩起了呢呢喃喃的花样。

　　“These things excite me so,” she whispered.

     "这些东西真叫我兴奋，"她低声说，

     “If you want to kiss me any time during the evening, Nick, just let me know and I’ll be glad to arrange it for you. Just mention my name. Or present a green card. I’m giving out green——”

     "如果你今晚上任何时候想吻我，尼克，让我知道就好了，我乐意为你安排。只要提我的名字就行，或者出示一张绿色的请帖。我正在散发绿色的……"

　　“Look around,” suggested Gatsby.

     "到处看看吧。"盖茨比建议道。

　　“I’m looking around. I’m having a marvelous——”

     "我正在到处看呢。我正在享受这美妙无比的……"

　　“You must see the faces of many people you’ve heard about.”

     "你一定见到很多你曾经听说过的人。"

　　Tom’s arrogant eyes roamed the crowd.

    汤姆傲慢的眼睛向人群一扫。

　　“We don’t go around very much,” he said. “In fact, I was just thinking I don’t know a soul here.”

     "我们极少出来，"他说，"事实上，我刚刚就觉得这儿的人，我一个都不认识。"

   “Perhaps you know that lady.” Gatsby indicated a gorgeous, scarcely human orchid of a woman who sat in state under a white plum tree. Tom and Daisy stared, with that peculiarly unreal feeling that accompanies the recognition of a hitherto ghostly celebrity of the movies.

★gorgeous ：[ˈɡɔːdʒəs] 非常漂亮的;美丽动人的。★Orchid：[ˈɔːkɪd] 兰科植物;兰花。★plum tree：[plʌm triː] 李树。

     "也许您认识那位小姐。"盖茨比指出的是一个气质如兰，脱凡出俗的女人。她端庄地坐在一棵白梅树下。汤姆和黛西目不转睛地看着，认出来这是一位一向只在银幕上见到的大明星，几乎不敢相信是真的。

　　“She’s lovely,” said Daisy.

     "她真迷人啊。"黛西说。

　　“The man bending over her is her director.”

     "向她弯着腰的是她的导演。"

He took them ceremoniously from group to group:

★Ceremoniously：[ˌserəˈməʊniəsli] 极其正规地;隆重地。

     盖茨比将他们隆重地介绍给一群又一群的客人。

　　“Mrs. Buchanan . . . and Mr. Buchanan——” After an instant’s hesitation he added: “the polo player.”

     "布坎南夫人……布坎南先生，"踌躇片刻之后，他又补充说，"马球运动员。"

　　“Oh no,” objected Tom quickly, “not me.”

     "不，"汤姆连忙否认，"我可不是。"

　　But evidently the sound of it pleased Gatsby, for Tom remained “the polo player.” for the rest of the evening.

    但是盖茨比显然喜欢这个名称，因为在那晚剩下的时间里，汤姆一直被称作"马球运动员"。

　　“I’ve never met so many celebrities!” Daisy exclaimed. “I liked that man—what was his name?—with the sort of blue nose.”

     "我从来没见过这么多名人，"黛西叫道，"我喜欢那个男人……他叫什么来着？——就是鼻子有点发青的那位。"

　　Gatsby identified him, adding that he was a small producer.

    盖茨比报了那人的姓名，并说他是一个小制片商。

　　“Well, I liked him anyhow.”

     "哦，反正我喜欢他。"

“I’d a little rather not be the polo player,” said Tom pleasantly, “I’d rather look at all these famous people in—in oblivion.”

★Oblivion：[əˈblɪviən] 无意识状态;沉睡;昏迷;被遗忘;被忘却。

     "我不太想当马球运动员，"汤姆愉快地说，"我倒宁愿以……以一个默默无闻的人的身份看看这么多有名的人。"

　　Daisy and Gatsby danced. I remember being surprised by his graceful, conservative fox-trot—I had never seen him dance before. Then they sauntered over to my house and sat on the steps for half an hour, while at her request I remained watchfully in the garden. “In case there’s a fire or a flood,” she explained, “or any act of God.”

    黛西和盖茨比跳了舞。犹记得他们优雅地跳起老式狐步舞，令我感到很诧异—我之前从未见过他跳舞。后来他俩溜到我家，在台阶上坐了半个小时，她让我待在园子里把风。"防火防水。"她解释道，"或是其他什么天灾。"

　　Tom appeared from his oblivion as we were sitting down to supper together. “Do you mind if I eat with some people over here?” he said. “A fellow’s getting off some funny stuff.”

    我们正在吃晚饭时，汤姆冷不丁地冒了出来。"我可以跟那边几个人一起吃饭吗？"他说，"有一个家伙正在聊有趣的事呢。"

   “Go ahead,” answered Daisy genially, “and if you want to take down any addresses here’s my little gold pencil.” . . . she looked around after a moment and told me the girl was “common but pretty,” and I knew that except for the half-hour she’d been alone with Gatsby she wasn’t having a good time.

★Genially：亲切地；和蔼地；快活地。

    "去吧，"黛西亲切地回答，"如果你要留下谁的住址，这里是我的小金铅笔。"……过了一会儿，她四下瞅了瞅，对我说那个女孩"俗气但漂亮"，于是我明白，除了她跟盖茨比独处那半小时之外，她玩得并不开心。

    We were at a particularly tipsy table. That was my fault—Gatsby had been called to the phone, and I’d enjoyed these same people only two weeks before. But what had amused me then turned septic on the air now.

★Tipsy：[ˈtɪpsi] 微醉的；略有醉意的。

    我们这一桌的人都喝得酩酊大醉。这得怪我——盖茨比被叫去接电话，又碰巧两周前我还跟这桌人玩得开心，但是当时的乐趣此刻却变味了。

　　“How do you feel, Miss Baedeker?”

    "你感觉怎么样，贝达克小姐？"

   The girl addressed was trying, unsuccessfully, to slump against my shoulder. At this inquiry she sat up and opened her eyes.

★Slump：[slʌmp] 重重地坐下（或倒下）。

    我问的这个姑娘正试图倒在我的肩上，可是还没靠上。听到问话，她坐起身来，睁开了眼睛。

　　“What?”

     "什么？"

    A massive and lethargic woman, who had been urging Daisy to play golf with her at the local club to-morrow, spoke in Miss Baedeker’s defence:

★Massive：大而重的；结实的。★Lethargic：[ləˈθɑːdʒɪk] 慵懒的;没精打采的。

    一个懒洋洋的健壮女人，本来一直在游说黛西明天跟她到本地俱乐部一起打高尔夫球，现在来为贝达克小姐辩白了：

　　“Oh, she’s all right now. When she’s had five or six cocktails she always starts screaming like that. I tell her she ought to leave it alone.”

     "哦，她现在还好啦。她每次五六杯鸡尾酒下肚，总是这样大喊大叫。我总劝她别喝了。"

　　“I do leave it alone,” affirmed the accused hollowly.

     "我是不喝酒。"那受指责的人呆呆地说。

　　“We heard you yelling, so I said to Doc Civet here: ‘There’s somebody that needs your help, Doc.’”

     "我们听到你尖叫，于是我跟这位希维特大夫说：'那里有人需要您看看，大夫。'"

　　“She’s much obliged, I’m sure,” said another friend, without gratitude. “But you got her dress all wet when you stuck her head in the pool.”

     "她非常感激，我确信，"另一位朋友说，却听不出什么真诚。"可是你把她的头摁进游泳池里去，以致裙子全弄湿了。"

　　“Anything I hate is to get my head stuck in a pool,” mumbled Miss Baedeker. “They almost drowned me once over in New Jersey.”

    "我最反感的就是把我的头摁进游泳池里，"贝达克小姐咕哝道，"有一回在新泽西州他们差点把我淹死。"

    “Then you ought to leave it alone,” countered Doctor Civet.

★Counter：[ˈkaʊntə(r)] 反驳;驳斥;抵制;抵消。

     "那你应该别再喝了。"希维特大夫驳斥道。

　　“Speak for yourself!” cried Miss Baedeker violently. “Your hand shakes. I wouldn’t let you operate on me!”

     "说你自己吧！"贝达克小姐激烈地叫道，"你那发抖的手。我可不敢让你给我做手术！"