了不起的盖茨比第八章（初遇黛西）

了不起的盖茨比第八章导读：

经历了车祸事件后，尼克度过了一个不眠之夜。黎明前，他不安地站起来，去盖茨比的官邸拜访他。盖茨比告诉他，他在黛西家一直等到凌晨四点，什么也没发生，汤姆没有试图伤害她，黛西也没有出来。Nick建议盖茨比忘记黛西，离开长岛，但盖茨比情根深种，哪里听得进尼克善意的忠告。

盖茨比忧伤地告诉尼克1917年在路易斯维尔和黛西交往的来龙去脉。他说，他爱她是因为她的年轻和活力，还有她的社会地位、财富和声望所带给她的迷人风采。他补充说，她是第一个乐意亲近他的“大家闺秀”，他谎报了自己的背景，让她相信他配得上她。最后，他继续说，他和黛西做爱了，这让他产生了错觉，觉得自己好像已经娶了她。虽然黛西答应盖茨比会等他回来，但终究还是忍受不了无休止的等待，她想要安定的生活，所以后来她嫁给了汤姆，汤姆与她门当户对，而且能给她想要的安全感和触手可及的快乐。

　　I couldn’t sleep all night; a fog-horn was groaning incessantly on the Sound, and I tossed half-sick between grotesque reality and savage, frightening dreams. Toward dawn I heard a taxi go up Gatsby’s drive, and immediately I jumped out of bed and began to dress—I felt that I had something to tell him, something to warn him about, and morning would be too late.

我整夜不能入睡，听着在海湾上持续不断的雾笛声。我如同病人一般在荒诞的现实与可怕的噩梦之间辗转反侧。黎明将至时，我听见一辆出租车开上了盖茨比的车道。我立刻跳下床，披上衣服--我觉得我有必要跟他说些实话，给他一个提醒，否则拖到早上就太迟了。

  Crossing his lawn, I saw that his front door was still open and he was leaning against a table in the hall, heavy with dejection or sleep.

Dejection：沮丧；情绪低落；垂头丧气a feeling of unhappiness and disappointment。

我穿过他家的草坪，看见他的大门还开着，他正倚着门厅里的一张桌子，因为沮丧或者困倦而显得阴沉。

  “Nothing happened,” he said wanly. “I waited, and about four o’clock she came to the window and stood there for a minute and then turned out the light.”

Wanly： in a weak or pale or languid manner。

   "什么事也没发生，"他无力地说，"我等了，大概四点钟，她走到窗边，站了一会儿，就关了灯。"

   His house had never seemed so enormous to me as it did that night when we hunted through the great rooms for cigarettes. We pushed aside curtains that were like pavilions, and felt over innumerable feet of dark wall for electric light switches—once I tumbled with a sort of splash upon the keys of a ghostly piano. There was an inexplicable amount of dust everywhere, and the rooms were musty, as though they hadn’t been aired for many days. I found the humidor on an unfamiliar table, with two stale, dry cigarettes inside. Throwing open the French windows of the drawing-room, we sat smoking out into the darkness.

Stale：（烟味）难闻的no longer fresh; smelling unpleasant。

那天夜里，因为找寻香烟，我们俩穿遍了那些宽敞的房间，我第一次感觉到他这宅子是如此巨大。我们推开帐篷似的厚门帘，又沿着难以穷尽的黑暗墙壁上摸索着电灯开关--有一次我轰隆一声摔在一架幽灵似的钢琴的键盘上。到处都有不可思议的厚灰尘，所有的屋子都是霉烘烘的，好像有很多日子没通过风了。我在一张眼生的桌子上找到了烟盒子，里面还有两根走了味的、干瘪的香烟。我们把客厅的落地窗拉开，坐在夜色里抽了起来。

　　“You ought to go away,” I said. “It’s pretty certain they’ll trace your car.”

     "你应当躲走，"我说，"警察肯定会追查到你的车。"

　　“Go away NOW, old sport?”

     "现在就走吗，老兄？"

　　“Go to Atlantic City for a week, or up to Montreal.”

     "到大西洋城①去待一个星期，或是往北到蒙特利尔②去。"

①     大西洋城（AtlantiC City），南部乔治亚州首府。1976年美国第一个合法赌场在此开放，城市更加繁荣，成为主要旅游休息场所。

②     蒙特利尔（Montreal），加拿大首都。

    He wouldn’t consider it. He couldn’t possibly leave Daisy until he knew what she was going to do. He was clutching at some last hope and I couldn’t bear to shake him free.If you clutch at something or clutch something, you hold it tightly, usually because you are afraid or anxious.

Clutch： (通常因害怕或担心)紧握，紧抓。

他不肯考虑。除非得知黛西接下来会做什么，否则绝不可能离开黛西，。他在抓着最后一线希望不放，我也不忍叫他放手。

　　It was this night that he told me the strange story of his youth with Dan Cody—told it to me because “Jay Gatsby.” had broken up like glass against Tom’s hard malice, and the long secret extravaganza was played out. I think that he would have acknowledged anything now, without reserve, but he wanted to talk about Daisy.

就在这天夜里，他聊了他年轻时与丹·科迪之间的离奇故事——他之所以会告诉我，因为"杰伊·盖茨比"这五个字像玻璃一样，被汤姆那冷酷蛮横的恶意击得粉碎，那出漫长的秘密狂想剧也演完了。我想他这时什么都可以毫无保留地承认，但他只想谈黛西的事。

　 She was the first “nice” girl he had ever known.

    她是他所认识的第一个"大家闺秀"。

  In various unrevealed capacities he had come in contact with such people, but always with indiscernible barbed wire between.

Capacities：身份;职责;职位。

    他以前以各种不为人知的身份与这一类人接触过，但每次总有一层无形的铁丝网隔在中间。

   He found her excitingly desirable.

    他对她一见钟情。

    He went to her house, at first with other officers from Camp Taylor, then alone.

    他到她家里去，一开始还会跟泰勒营的其他军官结伴去，后来就直接单独前往。

     It amazed him—he had never been in such a beautiful house before.

     她的家让他惊叹——他在此前从未见过那样漂亮的宅邸。

     but what gave it an air of breathless intensity, was that Daisy lived there—it was as casual a thing to her as his tent out at camp was to him. There was a ripe mystery about it, a hint of bedrooms up-stairs more beautiful and cool than other bedrooms, of gay and radiant activities taking place through its corridors, and of romances that were not musty and laid away already in lavender but fresh and breathing and redolent of this year’s shining motor-cars and of dances whose flowers were scarcely withered.

Redolent：使人想到;使人联想起。

但是其所以有一种令他屏息的紧张氛围却是因为她住在那里--这宅邸之于黛西，正如军营的帐篷之于他一般，是平淡无奇的。

这房子充满了香艳诱人的神秘气氛，仿佛暗示楼上的卧室比别家的更优美而别具一格，走廊里充满着赏心乐事，还有许多风流艳史--不是霉烘烘、用熏香草保存起来的，而是清新可人又活色生香，让人想起当年闪亮夺目的新款汽车，还有鲜花尚未凋谢的舞会。

    It excited him, too, that many men had already loved Daisy—it increased her value in his eyes.

     在他之前，就已经有很多男人爱慕着黛西，这使他激动，也提升了她在自己心里的价值。，

    He felt their presence all about the house, pervading the air with the shades and echoes of still vibrant emotions.

Pervading：渗透;弥漫;遍及。

   他感到她家里到处都有他们的存在。空气中弥漫着仍然颤动的感情气息。

   But he knew that he was in Daisy’s house by a colossal accident. However glorious might be his future as Jay Gatsby, he was at present a penniless young man without a past, and at any moment the invisible cloak of his uniform might slip from his shoulders. So he made the most of his time. He took what he could get, ravenously and unscrupulously— eventually he took Daisy one still October night, took her because he had no real right to touch her hand.

Cloak： 遮盖物a thing that hides or covers sb/sth。Ravenous：(of a person or an animal 人或动物) 极其饥饿的。Unscrupulous：不诚实的；不道德的；无道德原则的If you describe a person as unscrupulous, you are critical of the fact that they are prepared to act in a dishonest or immoral way in order to get what they want.

   但是，他明白他之所以能出入黛西家里纯粹是出于偶然，不管他作为杰伊·盖茨比会有怎样的锦绣前程，目前他还只是一个平平无奇、一文不名的年轻人，而且他的军服--这件可以掩盖出身的外衣随时都可能从他肩上滑落下来。

因此他尽可能地利用他的时间，贪婪而毫无廉耻之心地占有他所能得到的一切 --终于在十月的一个寂静的夜晚，他占有了黛西。他占有她，是因为他本来连碰一碰她的手都不配。

    He might have despised himself, for he had certainly taken her under false pretenses. I don’t mean that he had traded on his phantom millions, but he had deliberately given Daisy a sense of security; he let her believe that he was a person from much the same stratum as herself—that he was fully able to take care of her. As a matter of fact, he had no such facilities—he had no comfortable family standing behind him, and he was liable at the whim of an impersonal government to be blown anywhere about the world.

Liable：有责任的;(法律上)负有偿付责任;可能(做某事);可能受…影响。Whim：心血来潮;一时的兴致;突发的奇想。

    他也许鄙视过自己的，因为他确实用欺骗的手段占有了她，我不是说他利用了他那虚幻的财富，而是他故意给了黛西一种安全感，让她相信，他与她是同一个阶层的人--因此，他完全有能力照顾她。实际上，他并没有这种能力——没有强有力的家世为他撑腰，而且一旦毫无人情味的政府心血来潮，他随时都可能被打发到世界上任何一个地方。

    But he didn’t despise himself and it didn’t turn out as he had imagined. He had intended, probably, to take what he could and go—but now he found that he had committed himself to the following of a grail. He knew that Daisy was extraordinary, but he didn’t realize just how extraordinary a “nice” girl could be. She vanished into her rich house, into her rich, full life, leaving Gatsby—nothing. He felt married to her, that was all.

Grail：圣杯(据信为耶稣离世前所用);渴望但永远得不到的东西。

  但是他并没有鄙视自己，事情的进展也出乎他的意料。他原本的打算，也许是能骗到什么就骗什么，骗完就走——可如今他却发现，他已然沉迷于一种幻想。他知道黛西不同寻常，但他并没有意识到一个“大家闺秀“可以不同寻常到什么地步。她悄无声息地回到她那豪华的住宅里，回到她那富足多彩的生活，，给盖茨比什么也没留下。他觉得他已经和她结了婚了，仅此而已。

　 When they met again, two days later, it was Gatsby who was breathless, who was, somehow, betrayed. Her porch was bright with the bought luxury of star-shine; the wicker of the settee squeaked fashionably as she turned toward him and he kissed her curious and lovely mouth. She had caught a cold, and it made her voice huskier and more charming than ever, and Gatsby was overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves, of the freshness of many clothes, and of Daisy, gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor.

   两天之后，他们俩再见面时，盖茨比屏声息气，似乎上当受骗的倒是盖茨比。黛西家的门廊沐浴在财富所带来的灿烂星辰下。她转身让他吻她那张令人费解又优美可爱的嘴时，时髦的长靠椅的柳条吱吱作响，她着了凉，这让她的嗓音沙哑了一些，也前所未有地迷人。盖茨比深切地体会到财富能够禁锢和留存青春与神秘，锦衣华服可以带来清新之姿，而白银般光彩照人的黛西，安然凌驾于激烈挣扎的穷人之上。

　 “I can’t describe to you how surprised I was to find out I loved her, old sport.

    "我没法跟你描述，我发现自己爱上她时有多么惊讶，老兄。

     I even hoped for a while that she’d throw me over, but she didn’t, because she was in love with me too.

     有一阵我甚至希望她把我甩掉，但她没有，因为她也爱上了我。

    She thought I knew a lot because I knew different things from her. . . . Well, there I was, ‘way off my ambitions, getting deeper in love every minute, and all of a sudden I didn’t care.

   她以为我见多识广，因为我懂的东西和她截然不同……反正，我就这样，把雄心壮志撇在一边，每一分钟都在爱情里越陷越深，而且忽然之间我也什么都不在乎了。

   What was the use of doing great things if I could have a better time telling her what I was going to do?

   既然光是跟她畅聊未来就能让我更快乐，我又何必去干什么大事呢？”

　 On the last afternoon before he went abroad, he sat with Daisy in his arms for a long, silent time. It was a cold fall day, with fire in the room and her cheeks flushed.

在他出国前一天的那个下午，他搂着黛西，默默地坐了很久。秋日寒冷，屋里生着火，黛西的脸颊烘得通红。   

   Now and then she moved and he changed his arm a little, and once he kissed her dark shining hair.

   她不时会挪动一下，他就微微调整胳臂的位置，有一次他还吻了她那乌黑光亮的头发。 

   The afternoon had made them tranquil for a while, as if to give them a deep memory for the long parting the next day promised.

   那天下午，两人享受了一段静谧的时光，仿佛为了在他们记忆中留下一个深刻的印象，为第二天即将开始的长期分离做好准备。

   They had never been closer in their month of love, nor communicated more profoundly one with another, than when she brushed silent lips against his coat’s shoulder or when he touched the end of her fingers, gently, as though she were asleep.

   他们相互一言不发，她用嘴唇拂过地上衣的肩头，或者他温柔地碰一碰她的指尖，仿佛她是在睡梦之中，他俩在这一月的相爱中从来没有像这样亲密过，也从来没有像这样深刻地互通衷曲。