The Great Gatsby读书笔记(三)

作者: 阮一峰

日期: 2005年7月13日

在第八章中,Gatsby回忆了他初遇见Daisy时的情景。一个穷小子爱上富家小姐,他到底爱的是这个姑娘本身,还是她所代表的上层生活呢?

最终来说,Gatsby爱上的不是Daisy,而是他念念不忘的美国梦。他追求Daisy,就是为了追求他的梦。

这一段写得非常深刻和优美。我把中英对照的全文都贴在下面。我认为优美的英语句子,都用黑体标出来了。

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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.

就是这天夜里,他把他跟丹·科迪度过的年轻时代的离奇故事告诉了我,因为"杰伊·盖茨比"已经像玻璃一样在汤姆的铁硬的恶意上碰得粉碎,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. In various unrevealed capacities he had come in contact with such people, but always with indiscernible barbed wire between. He found her excitingly desirable. He went to her house, at first with other officers from Camp Taylor, then alone. It amazed him--he had never been in such a beautiful house before. 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. It excited him, too, that many men had already loved Daisy--it increased her value in his eyes. He felt their presence all about the house,pervading the air with the shades and echoes of still vibrant emotions.

她是他所认识的第一个"大家闺秀"。他以前以各种未透露的身份电曾和这一类人接触过,但每次总有一层无形的铁丝网隔在中间。他为她神魂颠倒。他到她家里去,起先和泰勒营的其他军官一起去,后来单独前往。她的家使他惊异----他从来没进过这样美丽的住宅,但是其所以有一种扣人心弦的强烈的情凋却是因为她住在那里----这房子对于她就像他在军营里的帐篷对于他一样地平淡无奇。这房子充满了引人入胜的神秘气氛,仿佛暗示楼上有许多比其他卧室都美丽而凉爽的卧室,走廊里到处都是赏心乐事,还有许多风流艳史----不是霉烘烘、用熏香草保存起来的,而是活生生的,使人联想到今年的雪亮的汽车-联想到鲜花还没凋谢的舞会-很多男人曾经爱过黛西。这也使他激动----这在他眼中增高了她的身价,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的阴影和回声。

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 apenniless young man without a past, and at any moment the invisible cloak of his uniform might slip from his shoulders. So he made the mostof his time. He took what he could get, ravenously and unscrupulously--eventually he took Daisy one still October night, took her because he hadno real right to touch her hand.

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·盖茨比会有何等的锦绣前程,目前他只是一个默默无闻、一文不名的青年人,而且他的军服----这件看不见的外衣随时都可能从他肩上滑落下来。因此地尽所利用他的时间,他占有了他所能得到的东西,狼吞点咽,肆无忌惮----终于在一个静寂的十月的夜晚他占有了黛西,占有了她,正因为他并没有否正的权利去摸她的手。

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 governmentto be blown anywhere about the world.

他也许应该鄙视自己的,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百万家财。但是他有意给黛西造成一种安全感,让她相信他的出身跟她不相上下----相信他完全能够照料她。实际上,他并没有这种能力----他背后没有生活优裕的家庭撑腰,而且只要全无人情味的政府一声令下,他随时都可以被调到世界上任何地方去。

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 richh ouse, into her rich, full life, leaving Gatsby--nothing. He felt married to her, that was all.

但是他并没有鄙视自己,事情的结果也出乎他的意料。他起初很可能打算及时行乐,然后一走了之----但是现在他发现他已经把自己献身于追求一种理想。他知道黛西不间寻常,但是他并没认识到一位"大家闺秀"究竟有多少不同寻常。她回到她那豪华的住宅里,回到她那丰富美满的生活,突然不见了,给盖茨比什么也没留下。他觉得他已经和她结了婚了,如此而已。

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,显得心慌意乱,似乎上当受骗的倒是盖茨比。她家凉台沐浴在灿烂的星光里。她转身让他吻她那张奇妙、可爱的嘴时,时髦的长靠椅的柳条吱吱作响,她看了凉,她的声音比平时更沙哑,更动人。盖茨比深切地体会到财富怎样禁甸和保存青春与神秘,体会到一套套衣装怎样使人保持清析,体会到黛西像白银一样皎皎发光,安然高踞于穷苦人激烈的生存斗争之上。

"I can't describe to you how surprised I was to find out I loved her,old sport. I even hoped for a while that she'd throw me over, but she didn't, because she was in love with me too. 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. What was the use of doing great things if I could have a better time telling her what I was going to do?"

我没法向你形容我发现自己爱上了她以后感到多么惊讶,老兄。有一阵我甚至希望她把我甩掉,但她没有,因为她也爱我。她认为我懂很多事,因为我懂的和她懂的不一样......唉,我就是那样,把雄心壮志撇在一边,每一分钟都在情网"越陷越深,而且忽然之间我也什么都不在乎了。如果我能够告诉她我打算去做些什么而从中得到更大的快乐,那么又何必去做大事呢?"

On the last afternoon before he went abroad, he sat with Daisyin his arms for a long, silent time. It was a cold fall day, with firein the room and her cheeks flushed. Now and then she moved and hechanged his arm a little, and once he kissed her dark shining hair. 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. 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.

在他动身到海外之前的最后一个下午,他搂着黛西默默地坐了很长的时间。那是一个寒冷的秋日,屋子里生了火,她的两颊烘得通红。她不时移动一下,他也微微挪动一同胳臂,有一次他还吻吻她那乌黑光亮的头发。下午已经使他们平静了一会,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远的分离做好准备。她用无言的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。

留言(2条)

I think what Gatsby feels for Daisy has nothing to do with love. It's just she
*is* everything he want to be and to be with. In other words, she represents the life, the social status, the social accepantce and everything he wants to achieve. She is Gatsby's dream. He loves her as a never-could-touched, always-out-of-reached dream. Call it silly, call it pathetic, call it whatever you like. But there *she* is, deeply rooted in his heart. And maybe in every one's heart.

巫宁坤先生的译真是非常好的!

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