Chapter1-双语名著无障碍阅读丛书——《了不起的盖茨比The Great Gatsby》

买wnw./.7 syeruld CHAPTER 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. "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,"he told me,"just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had." 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.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 plagiaristicand 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 ·002· 第一章 vulnerable ['vAlnarabl]a. 父亲在我还年轻，涉世未深的时候曾给过我忠告。 容易受影响的 他的话后来一直萦绕在我的心头。 “无论何时，如果你想要批评别人，”他嘱附我 说，“一定要记住，在这个世界上，并非所有人都拥有 你曾经拥有过的优越条件。” 他没有多说什么，不过，我们之间的交流虽不多， reserved[i'z:vda.有保 留的 说话点到为止，却总能了然于心。因此，我心里很清 楚，他的话意味深长，话中有话。结果，我养成了内敛 veteran[vetaran]a.老练 的 持重、凡事不安加评判的习惯。这个习惯令许多性情怪 异的人向我敞开心扉，同时也令不少世故的讨厌鬼在我 面前喋喋不休，简直苦不堪言。正常人若是表露出这种 ④privy[privi]a.知情的 性格特点，那么，心智不正常的人便可以立刻捕捉到， 并且会揪住不放。由此导致的结果是，我在大学时受到 ⑤feign[fein假装 了不公正的对待，人家指责我是个政客，理由就是我 私下里知道了放荡不羁、默默无闻之辈的那些不为人 ⑥quiver[kwiv)k颤动 知的伤心事。绝大多数隐私其实都不是我刻意打听来 plagiaristic ['pleidsiaristik] a.剽窃的 的一通常的情况是，我根据某种确切无疑的迹象意识 8mar[ma:】k损坏 到，一次倾诉心曲的行动行将出现。每当这种时候，我 snobbishly ['snabifli]ad. 便会装作昏然欲睡，心不在焉，或者显得轻率敌视，因 世故地 为年轻人倾诉心曲，或者至少他们表达心曲的措辞，往 往是剽窃来的，并且明显会遮遮掩掩，语焉不详。保留 看法，不妄加判断，这是一种充满了无限希望的状态。 我现在仍然觉得有点惴惴不安，担心会有所损失，因为 正如父亲曾经矜己世故地提出忠告，我现在则矜己世故 003· CHAPTER 1 repeat,a sense of the fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth 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. 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. 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 ·004· 第一章 ①decency['di:sonsi]n.正派 地加以重复的那样，自己会不会忘记，人从出生的时候 ②tolerance[tolarans】n.容 忍 开始，其基本的道德观念其实是分配不均的」 ③conduct[kan'dAkt]m.行为 不过，我如此这般地炫耀了一番自己的宽容姿态， 但也得承认，宽容也是有限度的。人的行为可能以坚硬 牢固的岩石做基础，也可能以潮湿稀淤的沼泽做基础， ④excursion[ik'sko:fn]n.旅 但是，一旦超出了某个临界点，我可就不在乎它以什么 行 做基础了。去年秋天，我从东部回来。当时，我有一种 感觉，即希望全世界的人都穿上军装，而且在道德上永 远保持一种立正姿势。我不想再进行什么热情奔放的倾 听之旅，从而享用特权去窥探人的心灵。只有盖茨比 ⑤gorgeous['gp:d3s]a.光 即本书以其姓氏命名的那个人一让我破例行事。 彩夺目的 盖茨比所代表的一切是我毫不掩饰所要鄙视的。如果说 ⑤intricate['intrikot)a.复杂 人的个性就是一连串不间断的成功姿势，那么，他的身 精细的 上一定具有某种绚丽辉煌的东西，即某种对于人生未来 7 responsiveness [ri'spon- sivnas]n.敏感性 的高度敏感性。他仿佛同一台记录着远在万里之外的地 (8 temperament [tempramant] 震的精密仪器紧密相联。这种敏感性与那种冠名为“创 气质 造性气质”而实为软弱无力的敏感性毫不相干一它是 一种异乎寻常的充满了希望的天赋，一种洋溢着浪漫 ④prey [prei]g坑害 色彩的气质。这样的气质我从未在别的什么人身上看 abortive[bbo:tiV]a.失败 的 到，今后恐怕也不大可能看得到了。不一盖茨比的人 a short-winded [fo:twindid] a.气短的 生结局无可厚非。倒是那些侵害摧残盖茨比的东西，那 2elation[ileifn]n.喜悦 些在他一次次梦醒后扬起的污浊尘埃，使我对于人们失 败后的悲痛和支离破碎的欢愉暂时失去了兴趣。 3 clan[klaen]n.宗族 三代以来，我们家族在这座中西部城市一直称得上 是门庭显赫、家境富有的人家。卡拉韦家族可以说是个 世家。据说，我们是巴克卢公爵的后裔，不过，我们这 一族的真正创始人是我祖父的哥哥。他五十一岁来到美 substitute ['sAbstitju:t]n. 替身 国，派了个替身去参加南北战争，开始时做五金批发生 意，我父亲至今还在做这门生意 我从未见过我的这位祖伯父，但是，大家说我长得 很像他—特别像挂在父亲办公室里的那幅板着面孔的 肖像画。1915年，我从纽黑文毕业，距离父亲从那儿毕 migration [mai'greifn]n. 业正好四分之一个世纪。过后不久，我参加了延期的条 移民 counter-raid [kauntareid] 顿民族大迁徙—即世界大战。我完全沉浸在那场反攻 .反击战 战带来的喜悦中，以至于回家之后一直静不下心来。美 国中西部已不再是世界热闹繁华的中心地带，倒似乎像 ·005· ICH风PTER1 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-es,"with 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. 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. It was lonely for a day or so until one morning some man,more recently arrived than I,stopped me on the road. "How do you get to West Egg village?"he asked helplessly. 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. ·006· 第一章 ①bond [bond]n.债券 是宇宙萧条破败的边缘一于是，我决定到东部去，学 做证券生意。我认识的所有人都在从事证券业，因此我 觉得，这个行当是能够多养活一个单身汉的。我的那些 @finance ['fainans]v. 叔伯舅姑姨婶们郑重其事，讨论了好一番，就好像是在 +…提供资金 替我挑选预备学校'似的。最后，他们神色凝重，表情 3 permanently ['pamanantli] ad.永久地 犹豫，说了句“啊一那就一去吧。”父亲答应给我 年的经费资助。几经耽搁之后，我终于在1922年春天 到达了东部。我想，这是要永久待下来了。 在城里找一处地方安顿下来，这是要做的一件实际 4commuting [ka'mju:tin]a. 能够在上下班往返的 的事情，但是，当时正值暖季，而自己又刚刚离开一个 草坪广阔和树木宜人的地区。所以当证券公司里有个年 5 bungalow ['bangolou]n. 轻同事建议，我们在近郊合租一幢房子时，我觉得这是 平房 个很好的主意。他物色到了房子，是一幢饱经风霜的木 板平房，月租金八十美元。但是，到了最后一刻，公司 ⑥mutter[mAta]W自言自 语 把他调到华盛顿去了，结果我独自一人住到郊外去了。 我养了一条狗一至少在狗跑掉之前，我还是养了几天 的一拥有一辆道奇牌轿车2，还雇了个芬兰女佣。女 佣替我铺床，做早餐，一边在电炉边忙着，一边自言自 语地念叨着芬兰的格言。 头一两天，日子过得孤单寂寞。直到一天上午，有 个比我更晚住到这里的人在路上拦住了我 7 pathfinder [pa:0faind]n. 探路者 “请问西卵镇怎么走啊？”他问了一声，一副无可 ⑧confer[kan'fa:]授予 奈何的模样。 我给他指了路。继续前行时，我心里不再感到寂宽 了，因为自己成了一位引路人，一位开拓者，一位原住 民。他不经意间授予了我本地区的特权。 阳光明媚，树上突然长满了嫩叶，就像电影镜头中 万物快速生长的样子。就这样，我的心中再次萌生了那 1指一种英美的私立贵族学校。在英国，预备学校的学生一般为六 至十三岁的儿童，为日后升入公学（如伊顿公学、哈罗公学）之类的 中学和大学（如牛津大学、剑桥大学）做准备。学校除了文化教育之 外，还重视行为规范教育，学生们必须做到斯文有礼，举止优雅。人 们通常认为，英美的顶备学校是培养绅士和淑女的摇篮 2道奇牌轿车是美国的一个著名汽车品牌，其创始人是密歇根州的 道奇兄弟，他们原本是亨利·福特的股东和董事，替福特公司生产汽 车零部件，由于福特的成功，道奇兄弟也因此获益，于1919年开始发 展自已的公司，成为福特的竞争对手。 ·007· CHAPTER 1 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. 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 Macenas 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 epigramlife 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 ·008· 第一章 个熟悉的信念，感觉人生随着夏天的到来再次开始了。 conviction [kon'vikfn]n. 一方面，需要阅读的书很多。另一方面，我呼吸弥 确信 漫着青春气息的新鲜空气，身体充满活力。我购买了十 多本关于银行、信贷和投资证券方面的书籍，一本本就 ②volume[volju:m]n.卷 像制币厂新印制出的钞票似的立在书架上，红皮烫金， 等待着我去揭开那些只有迈达斯、摩根和米西纳斯才 ③credit [kredi间n.贷款 知道的耀眼秘密。除此之外，我还立下了雄心壮志，要 ④mit[mint]n.制币厂 阅读许多其他书籍。我在念大学时就对文学感兴趣 有一年，我给《耶鲁新闻》撰写了一系列庄重严肃而又 平淡无奇的社论一我现在打算把所有这一切带回到自 5 editorial [,edi'to:rial]n. 包 己的生活中来，再次成为那种博而不精的“通才”。这 不仅仅是一句俏皮的格言一毕竞，如果单纯从一个窗 口去观看，人生是会显得成功许多啊。 epigram ['epigram]n. 事情纯属偶然，我竟然租住到了这样一幢住房， 言警句 它坐落在北美最不可思议的一个小镇上。小镇坐落在纽 约东面那座狭长的不规则岛屿上一那儿除了种种千奇 百怪的自然景致之外，还有两片形状非同寻常的地域。 离城二十英里处，是一对硕大无比的鸡蛋般的半岛，轮 廓形状一模一样，中间只隔着一片名义上的海湾。这对 ⑦enormous [i'no:mas]a.巨 半岛延伸进了西半球那片最平静的咸水水域一即属于 大的 长岛海峡‘的那片潮湿的谷仓边场。它们并不是正椭圆 ⑧contour[kontua]h.轮廓 回jut[dAdg伸出 domesticated [dau'mes- tikeitid]a.被驯服的 1迈达斯(Mias)是小亚细亚中西部古国弗里吉亚的国王，贪恋财 富，能点物成金。 2摩根(John Pierpont Morgan,1837-1913)是美国金融家和铁路巨 头。曾组建摩根公司(1895)、美国铁路公司(1901)，国际收割机 公司和国际商业海运公司(1902)，是解救1895年和1907年美国金融 危机的重要人物 3米西纳斯(Gaius Maecenas,前78-前8）是罗马贵族、巨富，罗马 第一代皇帝奥古斯都的密友和顾问，著名的文学赞助人，与诗人贺拉 斯、维吉尔等友谊深厚 4长岛海峡(Long Island Sound)是北大西洋的一片半封闭海湾，处 于美国纽约、康涅狄格州海岸和长岛之间。海峡水浅，多浮游生物和 水底生物，适合于幼鱼生存 ·00g· CHAPTER 1 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 wonder to the gulls that fly overhead.To the wingless a more interesting phenomenon is their dissimilarity in every particular except shape and size. 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 eyesore,but it was a small eyesore,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. 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 ·010·