了不起的盖茨比（牛津大学期间的盖茨比和黛西）

          He did extraordinarily well in the war. He was a captain before he went to the front, and following the Argonne battles he got his majority and the command of the divisional machine-guns. After the Armistice he tried frantically to get home, but some complication or misunderstanding sent him to Oxford instead. He was worried now—there was a quality of nervous despair in Daisy’s letters. She didn’t see why he couldn’t come. She was feeling the pressure of the world outside, and she wanted to see him and feel his presence beside her and be reassured that she was doing the right thing after all.

Frantically： (因害怕或担心)发狂的，狂躁的。If you are frantic, you are behaving in a wild and uncontrolled way because you are frightened or worried.     Complication：并发症;使更复杂化(或更困难)的事物。

阿尔贡战役：即默兹-阿尔贡攻势，第一次世界大战末期协约国攻势的重要组成部分。该攻势沿整个西线展开，从1918年9月26日开始，11月11日停战，为期47天，涉及120万美军士兵，是美国军事史上最大的攻势。

   他在战争中表现优秀。还没上前线就已经是一名上尉，阿贡战役之后他就晋升少校，当上了师机枪连的连长。停战以后他心急如焚地准备回国，谁知阴差阳错之下，他却被送到了牛津大学。他现在愁坏了--因为黛西的信里流露出强烈的绝望情绪。她不明白他为什么还不回来。她开始感觉到外界的压力，因此她想见他，想感受他在身边的陪伴，好让她确信她的付出终究还是值得的。

    For Daisy was young and her artificial world was redolent of orchids and pleasant, cheerful snobbery and orchestras which set the rhythm of the year, summing up the sadness and suggestiveness of life in new tunes. All night the saxophones wailed the hopeless comment of the BEALE STREET BLUES. while a hundred pairs of golden and silver slippers shuffled the shining dust. At the gray tea hour there were always rooms that throbbed incessantly with this low, sweet fever, while fresh faces drifted here and there like rose petals blown by the sad horns around the floor."Beale Street Blues" 比尔大街蓝调 is a song by American composer and lyricist W.C. Handy. It was named after Beale Street, a center of African-American music in Memphis, Tennessee, and was published in 1917. The publication of the song coincided with the beginning of jazz recordings.[1] An early version by Earl Fuller's Famous Jazz Band earned Handy's firm $2,857 in royalties. A version by singer Marion Harris was a top 10 hit in December 1921. More typically, however, in the early years after it was written, jazz musicians played instrumental versions of the song.

Orchids：兰科植物;兰花。

    毕竟黛西还年轻，并且她那人造的世界充满了兰花、愉快的势利风尚和乐队--是那些乐队定当年的节奏，用新的曲调总结人生的哀愁和温情。萨克斯省通宵呜咽着《比尔大街蓝调》绝望的哀吟，同时一百双金银舞鞋扬起闪亮的灰尘。每天晚茶时分，总有一些房间会因为这低俗而甜美的歌舞热潮持续地震颤，同时鲜亮的面庞飘来飘去，好像是被哀怨的喇叭吹落在舞地里的玫瑰花瓣。

　　Through this twilight universe Daisy began to move again with the season; suddenly she was again keeping half a dozen dates a day with half a dozen men, and drowsing asleep at dawn with the beads and chiffon of an evening dress tangled among dying orchids on the floor beside her bed. And all the time something within her was crying for a decision. She wanted her life shaped now, immediately—and the decision must be made by some force—of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality—that was close at hand.

    季节流转，每到这样暧昧的傍晚时分，黛西便又活跃了起来；她忽然又开始一天约会五六个男人，玩到天亮才昏昏睡去，身上还穿着缀满珠子的雪纺绸晚礼服，裙摆垂到地上，和床边渐渐枯萎的兰花纠缠在一起。在这整个期间她内心深处渴望做出一个决定。她希望立刻解决自己的终身大事，不再拖延--而且这个决定必须借由某种力量来做出--爱情、金钱、无可置疑的实际——并且触手可及。

   That force took shape in the middle of spring with the arrival of Tom Buchanan. There was a wholesome bulkiness about his person and his position, and Daisy was flattered. Doubtless there was a certain struggle and a certain relief. The letter reached Gatsby while he was still at Oxford.

Bulkiness：庞大；笨重。

   那股力量在春天过了一半的时候，随着汤姆·布坎农的到来而出现了。他这个人及其地位很有分量，因此黛西也觉得受宠若惊。毫无疑问，她有过一番思想斗争，同时也感到如释重负。盖茨比收到信时还在牛津大学。

　　It was dawn now on Long Island and we went about opening the rest of the windows down-stairs, filling the house with gray-turning, gold-turning light. The shadow of a tree fell abruptly across the dew and ghostly birds began to sing among the blue leaves. There was a slow, pleasant movement in the air, scarcely a wind, promising a cool, lovely day.

   这时长岛已是黎明，我们走过去把楼下其余的窗子也都打开，让屋子里充满渐渐发白、渐渐金黄的光线。一棵树的影子突然横投在露水上，同时幽灵般的鸟儿在蓝色的树叶中开始歌唱。空气中有一种缓慢而愉悦的动静，但也无关微风，预示着这将是凉爽宜人的一天。

    “I don’t think she ever loved him.” Gatsby turned around from a window and looked at me challengingly. “You must remember, old sport, she was very excited this afternoon. He told her those things in a way that frightened her—that made it look as if I was some kind of cheap sharper. And the result was she hardly knew what she was saying.”

Sharper：（赌博中的）骗子。

    "我不认为黛西爱过他，"盖茨比从一扇窗前转过身来，用挑战的目光看着我，"你一定得记住，老兄，她今天下午非常紧张。他用威吓的方式跟她讲那些话的--他把我说成是一个下贱的骗子，结果弄得黛西也语无伦次。"

　　He sat down gloomily.

   他忧心忡忡地坐了下来。

　“Of course she might have loved him just for a minute, when they were first married—and loved me more even then, do you see?”

    "当然她可能爱过他一阵子，在他们刚结婚的时候—但就算是在那时，她也更加爱我，你知道吗？"

　　Suddenly he came out with a curious remark.

    然后他突然冒出一句奇怪的话：

  “In any case,” he said, “it was just personal.”

   “无论如何……”他说，“这都是个人见解。” 

　　What could you make of that, except to suspect some intensity in his conception of the affair that couldn’t be measured?

    他对这件事的看法似乎带有某种强烈的情绪——除此之外，还能怎样去理解这句话呢？

　　He came back from France when Tom and Daisy were still on their wedding trip, and made a miserable but irresistible journey to Louisville on the last of his army pay. He stayed there a week, walking the streets where their footsteps had clicked together through the November night and revisiting the out-of-the-way places to which they had driven in her white car. Just as Daisy’s house had always seemed to him more mysterious and gay than other houses, so his idea of the city itself, even though she was gone from it, was pervaded with a melancholy beauty.

    他从法国回来后，汤姆和黛西还在蜜月旅行，他伤心不已却又情不自禁地用所剩不多的军饷到路易斯维尔去了一趟。他在那里待了一个星期，走遍当年他俩在十一月的夜晚一起逛过的街道，又重访他们当年开着她那辆白色汽车去过的偏僻之处。在他看来黛西家一向比别人家更加神秘和欢乐，虽然她已远离这里，但就路易斯维尔这个城市本身而言，在他看来也弥漫着一种忧伤的美。

   He left feeling that if he had searched harder, he might have found her—that he was leaving her behind. The day-coach—he was penniless now—was hot. He went out to the open vestibule and sat down on a folding-chair, and the station slid away and the backs of unfamiliar buildings moved by. Then out into the spring fields, where a yellow trolley raced them for a minute with people in it who might once have seen the pale magic of her face along the casual street.

day-coach：an ordinary railroad passenger car, as distinguished from a sleeping car, parlor car, or other deluxe accommodations.

   他离开的时候感觉：如果他更用心地去找的话，他也许可以找到她的--而他这一走，就把她给抛下了。硬座客车——他已花光了所有的钱，只能坐硬座——非常热。。他走到敞开的车厢门廊间，在一张折叠椅上坐下，接着车站溜了过去，一幢幢陌生的建筑物背面，也从眼前掠过。然后驶过春天的田野，与一辆黄色电车并行了一会。也许电车里也有乘客曾不经意间在街上一睹黛西那张魅惑的苍白芳容。

   The track curved and now it was going away from the sun, which as it sank lower, seemed to spread itself in benediction over the vanishing city where she had drawn her breath. He stretched out his hand desperately as if to snatch only a wisp of air, to save a fragment of the spot that she had made lovely for him. But it was all going by too fast now for his blurred eyes and he knew that he had lost that part of it, the freshest and the best, forever.

Benediction：（基督教的）祝福，祝祷a Christian prayer of blessing。

   火车拐了一个弯，背对着太阳渐行渐远，夕阳西下，余晖漫天，似乎为这个慢慢消逝的、她曾生活过的城市祝福。他绝望地伸出手去，仿佛只想握住一缕空气，从那个因为她而使他认为是最动人的地方留下一个念想。但是在他模糊的泪眼前面，一切都逝去得太快，他知道他已经失去了这个城市最新鲜最美好的部分，永远失去了。