Day 17

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，一点声音也没有。然后我听到从起居室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.”

"又见到你，我真高兴极了。"

A pause; it endured horribly. I had nothing to do in the hall, so I went into the room.

一阵静寂。时间长得可怕。我在门廊里没事可做，于是我走进屋子。

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.

盖茨比两手仍然揣在口袋里，正斜倚在壁炉架上，勉强装出一副悠然自得、甚至无精打采的神气。他的头往后仰，一直碰到一架早已报废的大台钟的钟面上。他那双显得心神错乱的眼睛从这个位置向下盯着黛西，她坐在一张硬背椅子的边上，神色惶恐，姿态倒很优美。

recline  [riˈklain] v.放置  to lean or lie back with the upper part of your body in a nearly horizontal position

mantelpiece  [ˈmænt(ə)lpiːs]  n.  壁炉台

strained  [streɪnd]  adj. 行为不自然的,不友好的; 牵强附会的; 紧张的,疲倦的

counterfeit  [ˈkauntəfit] n.& adj. 赝品,伪造品,伪造的,假冒的  vt.伪造,假冒

defunct  [dɪˈfʌŋkt]  adj.  死亡的；死的

distraught  [dɪˈstrɔːt]  adj.  心情烦乱的；狂乱的；心神狂乱的

stiff  [stif] adj.硬的,僵直的,拘谨的,呆板的,艰难的,费劲的,僵硬的

“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。"盖茨比咕哝着说。他瞥了我一眼，嘴唇张开想笑又没笑出来。幸好那架钟由于他的头的压力就在这一刻摇摇欲坠，他连忙转过身来用颤抖的手指把钟抓住，放回原处。然后他坐了下来，直挺挺地，胳臂肘放在沙发扶手上，手托住下巴。

mutter  [ˈmʌtə] n.&v. 咕哝,嘀咕

rigidly  [`rIdʒIdlI]  无可改变地; 严格地

“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.

我自己的脸也涨得通红，像被热带的太阳晒过那样。我脑子里虽有千百句客套话，可是一句也说不出来。

muster up: gather or bring together

commonplace [ˈkɔmənpleis] n.平凡的事,平常话adj.平凡的

“It’s an old clock,”I told them idiotically.

"是一架很旧的钟。"我呆头呆脑地告诉他们。

I think we all believed for a moment that it had smashed in pieces on the floor.

我想我们大家当时有一会儿都相信那架钟已经在地板上砸得粉碎了。

“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，她的声音尽可能地平板。

“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.

盖茨比脱口而出的回答至少使我们大家又愣了一分钟。我急中生智，建议他们帮我到厨房里去预备茶，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.

递茶杯、传蛋糕所造成的忙乱大受欢迎，在忙乱之中建立了一种有形的体统。盖茨比躲到了一边去，当我跟黛西交谈时，他用紧张而痛苦的眼睛认真地在我们两人之间看来看去。可是，因为平静本身并不是目的，我一有机会就找了个借口，站起身来要走。

amid  [əˈmid] prep.在...中

decency  [ˈdiːsənsɪ]  n. 合宜，得体；礼仪，行为

conscientious  [ˌkɔnʃiˈenʃəs] adj. 尽责的

“Where are you going?” demanded Gatsby in immediate alarm.

"你上哪儿去？"盖茨比马上惊慌地问道。

“I’ll be back.”

"我就回来。"

“I’ve got to speak to you about something before you go.”

"你走以前，我有话要跟你说。"

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?”

"怎么啦？"

“This is a terrible mistake,” he said, shaking his head from side to side, “a terrible, terrible mistake.”

"这是个大错，"他把头摇来摇去地说，"大错而特错。"

“You’re just embarrassed, that’s all,” and luckily I added: “Daisy’s embarrassed too.”

"你不过是难为情罢了，没别的。"幸好我又补了一句，"黛西也难为情。"

“She’s embarrassed?” he repeated incredulously.

"她难为情？"他大不以为然地重复了我的话。

incredulous  [ɪnˈkredjʊləs] adj.  不相信的；不可轻信的

“Just as much as you are.”

"跟你同样难为情。"

“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.”

"你的行动像一个小孩，"我不耐烦地发作说，"不但如此，你也很没礼貌。黛西孤零零一个人坐在那里面。"

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.

他举起手来不让我再讲下去，怀着令人难忘的怨气看了我一眼，然后战战兢兢地打开了门，又回到那间屋子里去。

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跑了一圈--奔向一棵黑黝黝的盘缠多节的大树，茂密的树叶构成了一块挡雨的苫布。此刻雨又下大了，我那片不成形的草地，虽然被盖茨比的园丁修剪得很整齐，现在却满是小泥潭和历史悠久的沼泽了。从树底下望出去，除了盖茨比的庞大的房屋之外没有别的东西可看，于是我盯着它看了半个小时，好像康德盯着他的教堂尖塔一样。这座房子是十年前一位酿酒商在那个"仿古热"初期建造的，并且还有一个传闻，说他曾答应为所有邻近的小型别墅付五年的税款，只要各位房主肯在屋顶铺上茅草。也许他们的拒绝使他"创建家业"的计划受到了致命的打击--他立刻衰颓了。丧事的花圈还挂在门上，他的子女就把房子卖掉了。美国人虽然愿意、甚至渴望去当农奴，可是一向是坚决不肯当乡下佬的。

fabric  [ˈfæbrik]n.织品,织物,布,结构,建筑物,构造

steeple  [ˈstiːp(ə)l] n. (教堂的)尖塔

brewer  [ˈbruːə(r)] n.  酿啤酒人，酿酒人

thatch  [θætʃ] n.茅草屋顶;盖住头顶的蓬乱头发 vt.用茅草苫盖（屋顶）

serf  [sɜːf] n.(封建制度下的)农奴; 像奴隶一样被虐待的人

obstinate [ˈɔbstinit]adj.倔强的,顽固的

Kant 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.

半小时以后，太阳又出来了，食品店的送货汽车沿着盖茨比的汽车道拐弯，送来他的仆人做晚饭用的原料--我敢肯定他本人一口也吃不下。一个女佣人开始打开楼上的窗户，在每个窗口出现片刻，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，仿佛是他们俩窃窃私语的声音，不时随着感情的迸发而变得高昂，但是在这新的静寂中，我觉得房子里面也是一片肃静了。

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.

我走了进去--先在厨房里做出一切可能的响声，就差把炉灶推翻了--但我相信他们什么也没听见。他们两人分坐在长沙发两端，面面相觑，仿佛有什么问题提了出来，或者悬而未决，一切难为情的迹象也都消失了。黛西满面泪痕，我一进来她就跳了起来，用手绢对着一面镜子擦起脸来。但是盖茨比身上却发生了一种令人惶惑的变化。他简直是光芒四射。虽然没有任何表示欣喜的言语姿势，一种新的幸福感从他身上散发出来，充塞了那间小屋子。

vestige  [ˈvestɪdʒ] n.遗迹,痕迹;（某物的）残余;（用于否定）丝毫；一点儿

smear  [smɪə(r)] v. 将(黏性或油污物质)涂在…抹在…油 污,涂污; 弄脏,使涂污; 中伤,诽谤

confound  [kənˈfaʊnd] v.  使惊讶；使疑惑；使混淆

glow  [ɡləu]v.发光,发热

exultation [,eɡzʌl'teiʃən] n. 狂喜, 得意(等于exultance/exultancy)

“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，哈罗，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想跟我握手哩。

“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？"等他明白我说的是什么，又发觉屋子里阳光闪烁时，他像一个气象预报员又像一个欣喜若狂的回归光守护神似的露出了笑容，又把消息转报给黛西，"你看多有趣，雨停了。"

ecstatic  [ɪkˈstætɪk] adj.  欣喜若狂的

patron  [ˈpeitrən]n.(对某人,某种目标,艺术等)赞助人,资助人

recurrent  [rɪˈkʌrənt] adj.  复现的；再发的

“I’m glad, Jay.” Her throat, full of aching, grieving beauty, told only of her unexpected joy.

"我很高兴，杰伊。"她的声音哀艳动人，可是她吐露的只是她意外的喜悦。

“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?”

"你真的要我来吗？"

“Absolutely, old sport.”

"绝对如此，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，叮惜为时太晚了--盖茨比和我在草坪上等候。

“My house looks well, doesn’t it?” he demanded. “See how the whole front of it catches the

light.”

"我的房子很好看，是不是？"他问道，"你瞧它整个正面映照着阳光。"

I agreed that it was splendid.

我同意说房子真漂亮极了。

“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。"他用眼睛仔细打量了一番，每一扇拱门、每一座方培都看到了，"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.

我猜想他自己也不大知道他在说些什么，因为等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得体。

“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，"我做药材生意，后来又做过石油生意。可是现在我这两行都不干了。"他比较注意地看着我。"那么说你考虑过那天晚上我提的那件事了？"

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中闪烁。

“That huge place there?”she cried pointing.

"是那边那座老大的房子？"她用手指着大声问。

“Do you like it?”

"你喜欢它吗？"

“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.”

"我让它不分昼夜都挤满了有意思的人，干有意思的事情的人，有名气的人。"

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.

我们没有抄近路沿海边过去，而是绕到大路上，从巨大的后门进去的。黛酉望着那村在天空的中世纪城堡的黑黝黝的轮廓，用她那迷人的低语赞不绝口，一边走一边又赞赏花园，赞赏长寿花散发的香味，山楂花和梅花泡沫般的香味，还有吻别花淡金色的香味。走到大理石台阶前，我看不到穿着鲜艳的时装的人从大门出出进进，除了树上的鸟鸣听不到一点声音，真感到很异样。

postern  [ˈpɔstɜːn] n.  后门；边门；便门

silhouette  [sɪluːˈet] n.剪影,黑色的轮廓; 外形,轮廓,侧影

jonquil  [ˈdʒɔnkwɪl]  n.〈植〉长寿花

frothy  adj. 泡沫的；浅薄的

hawthorn  [ˈhɔːθɔːn] n.  山楂，山楂树 

kiss-me-at-the-gate  金银花

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·安托万内特式的音乐厅和王政复辟时期式样的小客厅，我觉得每张沙发、每张桌子后面都藏着客人，奉命屏息不动直到我们走过为止。当盖茨比关上"默顿学院图书室"的门时，我可以发誓我听到了那个戴猫头鹰眼镜的人突然发出了鬼似的笑声。

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。

Restoration salons 王政复辟时期式样的小客厅 (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)

默顿学院（Merton College），牛津大学的一个学院，以藏书丰富闻名。