CHAPTER 1（1）

第一章（1）

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I "ve been turning over in my mind ever since.

父亲在我年轻的时候对我的告诫，直到今天我还牢记于心。

"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, " he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you" ve had. "

“每当你想批评别人的时候，” 他对我说， “一定要记得并不是世界上每个人都曾拥有你所拥有的优势。”

He didn't say any more but we "ve always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that.

他没有再多说什么，但是我们之间的交流向来就不需要太多的语言，我也明白父亲的话意味深长。

In consequence I 'm inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in college I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men. Most of the confidences were unsought—frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon—for the intimate revelations of young men or at least the terms in which they express them are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions. Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope. I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat a sense of the fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth.

这样一来，我喜欢保留自己的所有看法，也正是这种习惯让我了解到很多生性古怪的人，同时也使我成为很多向来无聊的人的牺牲品。当一个正常人拥有这种特质的时候，那些心理异常的人很快就会发觉并将其死死缠住。于是，在大学里，我因为私下聆听了一些情绪失控的陌生人倾诉的秘密与痛楚，而无辜地被指责为 “小政客” 。我一般不会询问或打听别人的什么隐私或秘密。每当我明显感觉到有谁迫不及待地想对我倾吐心声的时候，我就假装睡觉，假装专心做事，或表现出一副不友好的样子，轻率了事——因为年轻人所倾诉的，或至少他们倾诉时说的那些话往往都是剽窃别人的，而且他们总是明显地克制自己。保留看法代表着无尽的希望。父亲一直这样略显清高地教育我，人从一出生开始，所拥有的优势和特质就不一样，我也一直略显清高地听从父亲的教导，而且至今我依然生怕自己由于忘记了父亲的教导而错过一些东西。

And, after boasting this way of my tolerance, I come to the admission that it has a limit. Conduct may be founded on the hard rock or the wet marshes but after a certain point I don't care what it's founded on. When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart. Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction—Gatsby who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away. This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the "creative temperament" —it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again. No—Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short—winded elations of men.

在对自己的容忍力做这么一番自我吹嘘之后，我还得承认自己的容忍力也是有限度的。一个人的操行可能坚守于磐石之上或湿地沼泽之中，但是超过了某种限度之后，我就不会在乎操行的基础到底是什么了。去年秋天我从东部归来以后，感觉自己好想让整个世界都穿上军装，全世界的人都能时刻将道德准则铭记于心，我不希望自己再肆无忌惮地带着优越感去窥探别人内心深处的秘密。唯独盖茨比——也就是将其名字奉献给本书的人——要被排除到我的反应之外，盖茨比也正代表了我始终所不屑和蔑视的一切。如果将人格视为持续不断地成功的表现，那么在盖茨比身上很了不起的一点就是他对于生活希望的高度敏感性，他的敏感能让人把他和那种能够记录千里之外地震数据的精密仪器相联系。盖茨比的敏感与那种被美其名曰为 “创造性气质” 的神经质不同，这种敏感是一种对于希望不同寻常的坚持，同时也是一种充满浪漫色彩的敏捷性。这种敏感是我从来不曾在哪个人的身上发现过的，我相信以后我也不会再从谁的身上找到。不——盖茨比一直都是不错的，而那些总是折磨着他的东西，那些在他梦醒之后将周围环境弄得污浊不堪的东西，却让我对于人们毫无意义的悲伤以及瞬间的欢快失去了兴趣。

My family have been prominent, well—to—do people in this middle—western city for three generations. The Carraways are something of a clan and we have a tradition that we "re descended from the Dukes of Buccleuch, but the actual founder of my line was my grandfather's brother who came here in fifty—one, sent a substitute to the Civil War and started the wholesale hardware business that my father carries on today.

在这座中西部城市，我家连续三代都算是有头有脸的上流人士。卡拉韦家族也算庞大，相传我们是布克娄奇公爵的后裔，但我们家的创始人实际上是我爷爷的哥哥。1851年，他来到这里，找了个人替他去参加内战，然后自己开始做批发五金器具的生意，之后父亲继承经营，一直到今天。

I never saw this great—uncle but I 'm supposed to look like him—with special reference to the rather hard—boiled painting that hangs in Father's office. I graduated from New Haven in 1915, just a quarter of a century after my father, and a little later I participated in that delayed Teutonic migration known as the Great War. I enjoyed the counter—raid so thoroughly that I came back restless. Instead of being the warm center of the world the middle—west now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe—so I decided to go east and learn the bond business. Everybody I knew was in the bond business so I supposed it could support one more single man. All my aunts and uncles talked it over as if they were choosing a prep—school for me and finally said, Why—ye—eswith very grave, hesitant faces. Father agreed to finance me for a year and after various delays I came east, permanently, I thought, in the spring of twenty—two.

据说我长得很像一位叔祖父，我从来没有见过这位叔祖父长什么样，唯一的依据就是父亲办公室里挂的那幅他毫无表情的照片。我于1915年毕业于纽黑文大学，刚好比父亲晚毕业整整二十五年。毕业不久我就参加了被延迟了的条顿民族大迁移，此次迁移被誉为 “世界大战” 。我彻彻底底地享受了一番反击的乐趣，回来之后还是久久无法平静。中西部已不再是世界上最舒适的地方了，现在它似乎变成了世界上最破旧的边缘——于是我决定去东部学习做债券生意。既然我认识的人都在做债券生意，那么也就不在乎再多一个我这样的单身汉了。我的叔姨姑舅们对此大加讨论一番，仿佛在帮我挑选大学预科学校一样，最后他们个个表情沉重，满脸犹豫地说： “干嘛不去，要不就去吧！” 父亲同意帮我支付一年的费用。几经推迟后，我于1922年春天来到了东部，那时自己感觉是要在这里一直定居下去。

The practical thing was to find rooms in the city but it was a warm season and I had just left a country of wide lawns and friendly trees, so when a young man at the office suggested that we take a house together in a commuting town it sounded like a great idea. He found the house, a weather beaten cardboard bungalow at eighty a month, but at the last minute the firm ordered him to Washington and I went out to the country alone. I had a dog, at least I had him for a few days until he ran away, and an old Dodge and a Finnish woman who made my bed and cooked breakfast and muttered Finnish wisdom to herself over the electric stove.

最实际的事就是要在城里找住处，但是当时天气暖和，而且我离开的时候家里也到处是绿草幽幽，树木宜人，所以当办公室的一个年轻人提议要与我在郊区镇上合租一套房子时，我觉得这个想法真是太棒了。他租了一座历经风雨剥蚀的木板平房，每月八十美元，但是就在我们要搬进去的最后一刻，他被公司调到华盛顿去了，我自己一个人去郊区住了。我养了一条狗，买了一辆道奇车，还雇了一个芬兰女佣帮我整理房间并做早饭。狗养了几天后就跑丢了。而那个芬兰女佣每天在电炉旁一边做饭，一边自己咕哝着芬兰的至理名言。

It was lonely for a day or so until one morning some man, more recently arrived than I, stopped me on the road.

那几天确实感觉有些孤独，直到一天早上，一个在我之后搬来的男人将我在路上拦住。

"How do you get to West Egg village? " he asked helplessly.

他带着些许无助，开口问道： “请问去西卵村怎么走？”

I told him. And as I walked on I was lonely no longer. I was a guide, a pathfinder, an original settler. He had casually conferred on me the freedom of the neighborhood.

我就告诉了他应该怎么走。然后我继续往前走，这时我已经不再感觉孤独了。我是最早搬到这里的，于是就成了向导和开拓者。他无意间还授予了我在附近一带自由活动的权利。

And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees—just as things grow in fast movies—I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.

在明媚的阳光里，树木一夜之间就都已经换上了绿色的新装——这变化就如电影里演的那般迅速——一个熟悉的信念在我心里出现：随着夏天的到来，生活将重新开始。

There was so much to read for one thing and so much fine health to be pulled down out of the young breath—giving air. I bought a dozen volumes on banking and credit and investment securities and they stood on my shelf in red and gold like new money from the mint, promising to unfold the shining secrets that only Midas and Morgan and Maecenas knew. And I had the high intention of reading many other books besides. I was rather literary in college—one year I wrote a series of very solemn and obvious editorials for the "Yale News" —and now I was going to bring back all such things into my life and become again that most limited of all specialists, the "well—rounded man. " This isn't just an epigram—life is much more successfully looked at from a single window, after all. It was a matter of chance that I should have rented a house in one of the strangest communities in North America. It was on that slender riotous island which extends itself due east of New York and where there are, among other natural curiosities, two unusual formations of land. Twenty miles from the city a pair of enormous eggs, identical in contour and separated only by a courtesy bay, jut out into the most domesticated body of salt water in the Western Hemisphere, the great wet barnyard of Long Island Sound. They are not perfect ovals—like the egg in the Columbus story they are both crushed flat at the contact end—but their physical resemblance must be a source of perpetual confusion to the gulls that fly overhead. To the wingless a more arresting phenomenon is their dissimilarity in every particular except shape and size.

首先，有很多的书要读，而且呼吸着这样清新宜人的空气，整个人都觉得神清气爽。我买了十几本书，是关于银行业务、信贷、以及投资证券的。这些包有红色和金色封皮的新书直立在书架上，仿佛造币厂刚印刷出来的新币，它们一定会为我揭晓弥达斯、摩根以及米塞纳斯的制胜秘诀。而且我有雄心要阅读很多其他方面的书。读大学时，我就很喜欢读书——记得有一年我在《耶鲁新闻》上发表了一系列沉重严肃却又浅显易懂的社论——而现在，我要将昔日的辉煌重写，我要再次成为那种中等水平的专家，也就是一个 “通才” 。这并不仅仅是一句隽语——毕竟，从单一的角度来看，人生要显得更加成功。我租房子的地方竟然属于北美最不同寻常的区域之一，这一切纯属巧合。这是一个形状细长、喧闹无比的岛屿，这个岛一直延伸到纽约的东部。这里有一些自然奇观，其中一处就是两片异乎寻常的地貌。在距离城市二十英里的地方，有两个硕大无比的卵形岛屿，其形状相同，仅被一条浅湾隔开，延伸到西半球最恬静的咸水域，即长岛海峡的巨大湿地区域。它们的形状并不是标准的椭圆形——就像哥伦布在故事里描写的蛋一样，在接壤处是犹如碰撞过形成的扁平状——但是它们形状是如此地相似，就连从天空掠过的海鸥都一定会对此困惑不已。而对于那些没有翅膀的来说，更加引人注意的现象就是除了形状大小相同，这两个岛在其他方面都截然不同。

I lived at West Egg, the—well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them. My house was at the very tip of the egg, only fifty yards from the Sound, and squeezed between two huge places that rented for twelve or fifteen thousand a season. The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard—it was a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool and more than forty acres of lawn and garden. It was Gatsby's mansion. Or rather, as I didn't know Mr. Gatsby it was a mansion inhabited by a gentleman of that name. My own house was an eye—sore, but it was a small eye—sore, and it had been overlooked, so I had a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbor's lawn, and the consoling proximity of millionaires—all for eighty dollars a month.

我住在西卵，就是两个岛中相对不怎么时髦的一个，这算是再肤浅不过的表达方式了，因为比较两岛时总是充满着离奇和不祥的感觉。我的房子就在蛋尖上，距海湾只有五十码，紧挨我房子两边的是两座气派的别墅，一个季度的租金要一万二到一万五。我房子右边的私人别墅，从任何一方面来说，都算是大得无与伦比——她简直就是诺曼底市政厅的翻版，别墅的一边有一座塔楼，塔边上攀爬着一簇鲜嫩的常青藤，让整个塔楼显得崭新夺目。楼旁有一个大理石游泳池，四十多英亩的大草坪和一个花园。这里就是盖茨比的私人公寓。或者说，在这座私人公寓里，住着一位姓盖茨比的先生，因为我当时并不认识盖茨比。我自己的房子破旧得有些不堪入目，但是幸好房子不大，无人注意，而我因此也可以欣赏海景，观赏邻居的部分草坪，并以能与百万富翁为邻而自我安慰——所有这些只需每月支付八十美元。

Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water, and the history of the summer really begins on the evening I drove over there to have dinner with the Tom Buchanans. Daisy was my second cousin once removed and I "d known Tom in college. And just after the war I spent two days with them in Chicago.

海湾对面是时尚的东卵区，一座座白色的豪宅倒映在水里，显得更加璀璨夺目。就在那年夏天的一个傍晚，我开车去汤姆•布坎南夫妇家吃饭，故事也就从这里开始。黛西是我的远房表妹；而我在大学的时候就认识汤姆。战争刚结束的时候，我在芝加哥同他们呆了两天。

Her husband, among various physical accomplishments, had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven—a national figure in a way, one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty—one that everything afterward savors of anti—climax. His family were enormously wealthy—even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach—but now he "d left Chicago and come east in a fashion that rather took your breath away: for instance he" d brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest. It was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that.

她的丈夫不但擅长各种体育活动，而且曾经是纽黑文最有实力的橄榄球队边锋之一，因此在一定程度上也算是全国知名人物了。这种21岁就在某一领域登上顶峰的人，将来的一切都未免有走下坡路的感觉。他出生在一个非常富有的家庭——他读大学时，就可以自由挥霍金钱，还因此遭人非议——但是现在他已经从芝加哥搬到了东部。当时，他搬家的豪华阵容真是令人瞠目结舌：例如，他仅是马球马匹就从森林湖畔带来一长列。和我同龄的男人能够阔绰到如此程度，也确实有点令人难以置信。

Why they came east I don't know. They had spent a year in France, for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together. This was a permanent move, said Daisy over the telephone, but I didn't believe it—I had no sight into Daisy's heart but I felt that Tom would drift on forever seeking a little wistfully for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game. And so it happened that on a warm windy evening I drove over to East Egg to see two old friends whom I scarcely knew at all. Their house was even more elaborate than I expected, a cheerful red and white Georgian Colonial mansion overlooking the bay. The lawn started at the beach and ran toward the front door for a quarter of a mile, jumping over sun—dials and brick walks and burning gardens—finally when it reached the house drifting up the side in bright vines as though from the momentum of its run. The front was broken by a line of French windows, glowing now with reflected gold, and wide open to the warm windy afternoon, and Tom Buchanan in riding clothes was standing with his legs apart on the front porch.

我不清楚他们为什么要搬到东部来。他们无缘无故地去法国呆了一年，然后又四处飘荡，他们所到之处总会聚集一群富豪，还经常一起打马球。黛西在电话上告诉我，这次搬来要定居到这里，但是我不相信她的话——我并不了解黛西的心思，但是我感觉汤姆会永远地这样飘荡下去，因为他渴望追求由一场场橄榄球赛所带来的刺激与兴奋，这种球赛不容错过。于是，在一个微风送爽的傍晚，我开车来东卵探望两个自己都不怎么熟悉的朋友。他们房子的精致华贵完全出乎我的预料，一座红白相间、令人赏心悦目的乔治王殖民期风格的豪宅临海而立。足有四分之一英里长的草坪从海滩一直朝家门口飞奔而来，越过日晷，砖墙以及花红似火的私人花园——最后到达房子边缘，仿佛是借助其奔跑之势，青草变成了鲜嫩的蔓藤，从房子的一边攀爬而上。草坪边上直立着一面法式落地窗，此刻正在彤红的晚霞里发着金光，窗户迎着温和宜人的晚风敞开着，汤姆•布坎南身着骑手服，双腿叉开，站在前门阳台上。

He had changed since his New Haven years. Now he was a sturdy, straw haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner. Two shining, arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward. Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body—he seemed to fill those glistening boots until he strained the top lacing and you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of enormous leverage—a cruel body.

与在纽黑文的时候相比，他基本上没有什么变化。如今他已是年过三十，身体强健，满头黄发，嘴角露出强硬之气，看上去盛气凌人。一双炯炯有神的眼睛流露着傲慢之气，他的眼睛非常引人注意，好像在告诉人们他是一个自信胆大而且积极上进的人。即使是他那柔软而优雅的骑手服也掩盖不了那强壮有力的身躯——他似乎是把那双锃亮的鞋子塞满后，又将上边的鞋带绷紧，而且当他的肩膀在那薄薄的上衣下动一下，你就可以看到下面大块的肌肉在移动。那是一个强壮有力的躯体，一个冷酷的躯体。

His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed. There was a touch of paternal contempt in it, even toward people he liked—and there were men at New Haven who had hated his guts.

他说话时声音粗哑，加深了他给人的那种性情暴戾的印象。即便是他同自己很喜欢的人说话，也总是带着一种居高临下的轻蔑口吻——于是在纽黑文就不难找出对他的狂妄自大深恶痛绝之人。

"Now, don't think my opinion on these matters is final, " he seemed to say, "just because I 'm stronger and more of a man than you are. " We were in the same Senior Society, and while we were never intimate I always had the impression that he approved of me and wanted me to like him with some harsh, defiant wistfulness of his own.

他似乎在说: “嘿，不要仅仅因为我比你强壮，比你有男子汉气概，就觉得我对这些问题的看法不容更改。” 我们同属一个高年级学生社团，虽然我们关系不是很亲密，但我一直都觉得他对我很好，并且希望我能喜欢他，一个带着特有的粗狂与傲慢之气的他。

We talked for a few minutes on the sunny porch.

我们在阳光明媚的阳台上聊了一会。

"I" ve got a nice place here, "he said, his eyes flashing about restlessly.

“我的住所的确不错。” 他对我说，一双眼睛不停地眨来眨去。

Turning me around by one arm he moved a broad flat hand along the front vista, including in its sweep a sunken Italian garden, a half acre of deep pungent roses and a snub—nosed motor boat that bumped the tide off shore.

他揪住我的一个胳膊，拉我转过身，然后一挥他那宽大的手，给我指着前面的景色，包括一座意大利凹陷式的私人花园，半英亩散发着浓郁香味的深色玫瑰，还有一艘前端扁平的汽艇，在岸上随着波浪上下起伏。

"It belonged to Demaine the oil man. " He turned me around again, politely and abruptly. "We" ll go inside. "

“这里以前属于石油巨头德梅因。” 他突然又礼貌地拉我转过身， “我们进屋吧。”

We walked through a high hallway into a bright rosy—colored space, fragilely bound into the house by French windows at either end. The windows were ajar and gleaming white against the fresh grass outside that seemed to grow a little way into the house. A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding cake of the ceiling—and then rippled over the wine—colored rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea.

穿过一条很高的过道，我们来到一间明亮的玫瑰色房间，房间两边脆弱地镶嵌着法式落地窗户。窗户微开着，窗外的嫩草与明亮的玻璃相互映衬，看上去好像青草一直延伸到了屋内。一阵微风吹进房间，窗帘从一头被吹进来，又从另外一头被吹了出去，看上去仿佛是淡色的旗帜，被风卷着飘向天花板上装饰着的磨砂结婚蛋糕——然后又在深红色的地毯上像波浪一样起起伏伏，那种晃晃的影子犹如清风吹过海面的感觉。

The only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon. They were both in white and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house. I must have stood for a few moments listening to the whip and snap of the curtains and the groan of a picture on the wall. Then there was a boom as Tom Buchanan shut the rear windows and the caught wind died out about the room and the curtains and the rugs and the two young women ballooned slowly to the floor.

房间里只有那张宽大厚实的沙发在那里一动不动，沙发上躺着两个年轻女子，她们看上去好像躺在一个固定在地面的气球上一般。她们穿着白色的衣服，衣服在微风中翩然舞动，似乎她们刚刚趁着微风环绕屋内飞了一圈后回到了这里。我在那里站了一会，听着窗帘随风噼里啪啦地抽打着墙壁，墙上的挂画在那里嘎吱嘎吱地响。突然只听砰的一声，汤姆•布坎南将后面的窗户关上了，屋子里风渐渐平息，窗帘和地毯变得安静，两位年轻女子也似乎随着气球降落到地面。

The younger of the two was a stranger to me. She was extended full length at her end of the divan, completely motionless and with her chin raised a little as if she were balancing something on it which was quite likely to fall. If she saw me out of the corner of her eyes she gave no hint of it—indeed, I was almost surprised into murmuring an apology for having disturbed her by coming in.

我不认识两位中那个年轻一点的。她全身伸展，一动不动的躺在沙发长椅的一头，下巴向上微微翘起，好像在平衡什么东西不让它掉下来似的。如果她用眼角的余光瞟到我了，也没有任何反应——而我倒确实大吃一惊，差点因为自己的到来打扰了她而开口向她道歉。

The other girl, Daisy, made an attempt to rise—she leaned slightly forward with a conscientious expression—then she laughed, an absurd, charming little laugh, and I laughed too and came forward into the room.

另外一位女子就是黛西，她试图想要站起来——她的身体微微前倾，一脸诚意——然后她发出了一声娇媚又有点奇怪的轻笑，我也笑了起来，向前走进了屋内。

"I 'm p—paralyzed with happiness. "

“我幸福得都动……动弹不了了。”

She laughed again, as if she said something very witty, and held my hand for a moment, looking up into my face, promising that there was no one in the world she so much wanted to see. That was a way she had. She hinted in a murmur that the surname of the balancing girl was Baker. (I "ve heard it said that Daisy's murmur was only to make people lean toward her; an irrelevant criticism that made it no less charming. )

她再次笑了起来，好像刚刚说了句俏皮话，然后她握着我的手，抬头看着我，似乎要让我明白我是她在这个世界上最想见到的人。那是她特有的待人方式。她小声提示我，那位做平衡姿势的女孩姓贝克。（我曾听说黛西低声细语只是为了让人身体前倾靠近她。不过，这些毫不相干的闲言碎语丝毫不影响她的魅力。）

At any rate Miss Baker's lips fluttered, she nodded at me almost imperceptibly and then quickly tipped her head back again—the object she was balancing had obviously tottered a little and given her something of a fright. Again a sort of apology arose to my lips. Almost any exhibition of complete self sufficiency draws a stunned tribute from me.

无论如何，那位贝克小姐还是动了一下嘴唇，用几乎让人察觉不到的动作向我点头问好，然后她又赶紧把头转回去——而她一直努力平衡着的东西明显动了一下，这可把她吓了一跳。我又一次想开口向她表示歉意了。几乎所有这种高傲自信的表现都会让我目瞪口呆，仰慕不已。

I looked back at my cousin who began to ask me questions in her low, thrilling voice. It was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again. Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth—but there was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget: a singing compulsion, a whispered "Listen, " a promise that she had done gay, exciting things just a while since and that there were gay, exciting things hovering in the next hour.

我回过头来看着我的表妹，她开始用那低柔而激动的声音问我话了。那声音委婉动听，仿佛是永远只能演奏一遍的音符，让人忍不住细耳聆听。她那忧郁而可人的脸颊带着一丝欢快，还有一双明亮的眼睛和一张热情而性感的嘴——但是，她的声音总是带有一种激情和活力，这种声音让那些深深爱慕着她的男士无法忘却：如同音乐般动人；一句轻声的 “听着” ；一声许诺——她刚才玩得很开心，而且下个小时也会感到开心刺激。

I told her how I had stopped off in Chicago for a day on my way east and how a dozen people had sent their love through me.

我告诉她我在来东部途中如何在芝加哥停留一天，在那里十几个朋友如何让我转达他们的问候。

Do they miss me? 'she cried ecstatically.

“他们都想念我吗？” 她欢天喜地地叫道。

"The whole town is desolate. All the cars have the left rear wheel painted black as a mourning wreath and there's a persistent wail all night along the North Shore. "

“整个城镇一片荒凉。所有汽车的左后轮胎都被涂成了黑色，仿佛致哀的花圈，北滨沿岸整整一夜都回荡着哀号声。”

"How gorgeous! Let's go back, Tom. Tomorrow! " Then she added irrelevantly, "You ought to see the baby. "

“好美妙啊！汤姆，我们回去吧。明天！” 然后，她又有点前言不搭后语地说： “你该去看看孩子。”

"I" d like to. "

“我想去看看。”

"She's asleep. She's two years old. Haven't you ever seen her? " "Never. "

“她现在在睡觉。她两岁了。难道你从来没有见过她吗？” “从没见过。”

"Well, you ought to see her. She 's—" Tom Buchanan who had been hovering restlessly about the room stopped and rested his hand on my shoulder. What you doing, Nick? I' m a bond man. "

“那你该去看看她。她……” 刚才一直在屋里不停地走来走去的汤姆•布坎南突然停下来，伸出一只手搂住我的肩膀。 “尼克，你最近在忙什么？” “我是做债券生意的。”

"Who with? "

“和谁做？”

I told him.

我把情况告诉了他。

"Never heard of them, " he remarked decisively. This annoyed me.

“我从来没听说过他们。” 他语气果断地说。这让我有点生气。

"You will, " I answered shortly. "You will if you stay in the East. "

“你以后会听说的。” 我立刻对他说， “只要你一直在东部住，你以后就会听说的。”

"Oh, I" ll stay in the East, don't you worry, "he said, glancing at Daisy and then back at me, as if he were alert for something more. " I "d be a God Damned fool to live anywhere else. "

“噢，不用担心，我会一直在东部住下去的。” 他边说边瞟了黛西一眼，然后又看看我，似乎有所防备， “我要是去其他地方住，那简直傻死了。”

At this point Miss Baker said "Absolutely! " with such suddenness that I startled—it was the first word she uttered since I came into the room. Evidently it surprised her as much as it did me, for she yawned and with a series of rapid, deft movements stood up into the room.

这时只听贝克小姐说 “当然了！” 她突如其来的一句话把我惊住了——这是从我进屋以来她说的第一句话。显然她也同我一样有点吃惊，因为她打着呵欠，灵巧而迅速地站了起来。

"I 'm stiff, ' she complained, " I "ve been lying on that sofa for as long as I can remember. "

“我已经僵了，” 她抱怨道， “我在沙发上躺了好久好久。”

"Don't look at me, " Daisy retorted. "I" ve been trying to get you to New York all afternoon. "

“别看我了，” 黛西还嘴说道， “我一下午都在试图说服你去纽约。”

"No, thanks, 'said Miss Baker to the four cocktails just in from the pantry, " I' m absolutely in training. "

“谢谢，不过不用了。” 贝克小姐看着刚从备膳室端出来的四杯鸡尾酒说道， “我绝对还处于训练阶段。”

Her host looked at her incredulously.

她的男主人半信半疑地看着她。

"You are! " He took down his drink as if it were a drop in the bottom of a glass. "How you ever get anything done is beyond me. "