书城外语那些无法拒绝的名篇
670600000011

第11章 了不起的盖茨比

The Great Gatsby

《了不起的盖茨比》通过完美的艺术形式描写了

20 年代贩酒暴发户盖茨比所追求的“美国梦”的幻灭,

揭示了美国社会的悲剧。 盖茨比与黛西的恋爱和分手

本来是个很普通的爱情故事。但作者出手不凡,把盖

茨比热恋的姑娘当作青春、金钱和地位的象征,当作

靠手段追求富裕物质生活的“美国梦”。盖茨比为了

追求黛西耗尽了自己的感情和才智,最后葬送了自己

的生命。他天真地以为:有了金钱就能重温旧梦,赎

回失去的爱情。可惜,他错了。他看错了黛西这个粗

俗浅薄的女人,他看错了表面上灯红酒绿而精神上空

虚无聊的社会。他生活在梦幻之中,被黛西抛弃,被

社会冷落,最终酿成了无法挽回的悲剧。

[ 美] 费·司各特·菲茨杰拉德(F.Scott Fitzgerald)

了不起的盖茨比

I spent my Saturday nights in New York because those

gleaming,dazzling parties of his were with me so vividly that I

could still hear the music and the laughter,faint and incessant,

from his garden,and the cars going up and down his drive. One

night I did hear a material car there,and saw its lights stop at his

front steps. But I didn’t investigate. Probably it was some final

guest who had been away at the ends of the earth and didn ’t

know that the party was over.

On the last night,with my trunk packed and my car sold to

the grocer,I went over and looked at that huge incoherent failure

of a house once more. On the white steps an obscene word,

scrawled by some boy with a piece of brick,stood out clearly in

the moonlight,and I erased it,drawing my shoe raspingly along

the stone. Then I wandered down to the beach and sprawled out

on the sand.

Most of the big shore places were closed now and there were

hardly any lights except the shadowy,moving glow of a ferryboat

across the Sound. And as the moon rose higher the inessential

houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the

old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’eyes — a fresh,

green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees,the trees

that had made way for Gatsby’s house,had once pandered in

whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams ;for a

transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath

in the presence of this continent,compelled into an aesthetic

contemplation he neither understood nor desired,face to face

for the last time in history with something commensurate to his

capacity for wonder.

And as I sat there brooding on the old,unknown world,I thought

of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at

the end of Daisy’s dock . He had come a long way to this blue

lawn,and his dream must have seemed so close that he could

hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind

him,somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city,

where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.

Gatsby believed in the green light,the orgiastic future

that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then,but

that’s no matter — tomorrow we will run faster,stretch out our arms

farther... And one fine morning...

So we beat on,boats against the current,borne back

ceaselessly into the past.

每星期六晚上我都是在纽约度过的,因为盖茨比举办的那

些灯火辉煌、光彩炫目的宴会使我记忆犹新,所以我仍然可以

听到微弱的音乐声和欢笑声不断地从他的园子里飘过来,还有

一辆辆汽车在他的车道上开来开去。一天晚上我确实听见那儿

有一辆汽车,也看见车灯照在他门前的台阶上。我没有去调查。

那大概是最后一位客人,刚从天涯海角归来,还不知道宴会早

已收场了。

在最后那个晚上,我的行李已经收拾好了,车子也卖给了

杂货店老板,我走过去又看了一眼那座庞大而零乱的、意味着

失败的房子。白色台阶不知被哪个男孩用砖头写了一个脏字儿,

映在月光里分外醒目,于是我把它擦了,鞋子在石头上蹭出沙

沙的响声。然后我又漫步到海边,仰天躺在沙滩上。

那些海滨大别墅现在大多已经关闭了,除了海湾上一只渡

船的幽暗漂移的灯光,四周几乎没有灯火。当明月上升的时候,

那些微不足道的房屋慢慢消逝,我逐渐看见了当年曾令荷兰水

手眼睛大放异彩的这个古岛——一片清新碧绿的新世界。它那

些消失了的树木,那些为盖茨比的别墅让路而被砍伐的树木,

曾经一度迎风飘拂,在这里低声响应着人类最后的也是最伟大

的梦想;在那个昙花一现的神妙的瞬间,人在面对这个新大陆

时一定屏息惊异,不由自主地堕入他既不理解也不企求的一种

美学的观赏中,在历史上最后一次面对着和他感到惊奇的能力

相称的奇观。

当我坐在那里缅怀那个古老的、未知的世界时,我也想起

了盖茨比第一次认出了黛西的那个码头的尽头的那盏绿灯时所

感到的巨大惊奇。他经历了漫漫长路才来到这片草坪上,那时

候他的梦一定就近在眼前,他几乎不可能抓不住的。他不知道

那个梦已经丢在他背后了,丢在这个城市不知何处的一片无垠

的混沌之中了,在那里,美利坚合众国的黑黝黝的田野在夜色

中向前伸展。

盖茨比信奉这盏绿灯,这个逐年在我们眼前渐渐远去的极

乐未来。它从前逃脱了我们的追求,不过没关系——明天我们

跑得更快一点,把手臂伸得更远一点……总有一天……

于是我们奋力向前划,逆流向上的小舟,不停地倒退,进

入过去。

作者介绍

费·司各特·菲茨杰拉德(1896-1940),美国小说家。1920 年出

版了长篇小说《人间天堂》,从此出了名,小说出版后他与吉姗尔达结婚。

婚后携妻寄居巴黎,结识了安德逊、海明威等多位美国作家。1925 年《了

不起的盖茨比》问世,奠定了他在现代美国文学史上的地位,成了20 年

代“爵士时代”的发言人和“迷惘的一代”的代表作家之一。

单词注解

incessant [in5sesnt] adj. 不停的,连续的,持续不断的

transitory [5trAnsitEri] adj. 短暂的;瞬息的

aesthetic [i:s5Wetik] adj. 美学的;美的;艺术的

obscurity [Eb5skjuEriti] n. 暗淡;晦涩,难解

ceaselessly [5si:slisli] adv. 不停地;持续地

名句大搜索

那大概是最后一位客人,刚从天涯海角归来,还不知道宴会早已收场了。

他不知道那个梦已经丢在他背后了,丢在这个城市不知何处的一片无垠

的混沌之中了,在那里,美利坚合众国的黑黝黝的田野在夜色中向前伸展。

于是我们奋力向前划,逆流向上的小舟,不停地倒退,进入过去。

实战提升