讀點好英文:The Great Gatsby 了不起的蓋茨比

The Great Gatsby 了不起的蓋茨比

[美]費·司各特·菲茨杰拉德（F.Scott Fitzgerald）

《了不起的蓋茨比》通過完美的藝術(shù)形式描寫了上世紀(jì)20年代販酒暴發(fā)戶蓋茨比所追求的“美國夢”的幻滅，揭示了美國社會的悲劇。蓋茨比與黛西的戀愛和分手本來是個很普通的愛情故事。但作者出手不凡，把蓋茨比熱戀的姑娘當(dāng)作青春、金錢和地位的象征，當(dāng)作靠手段追求富裕物質(zhì)生活的“美國夢”。蓋茨比為了追求黛西耗盡了自己的感情和才智，最后葬送了自己的生命。他天真地以為：有了金錢就能重溫舊夢，贖回失去的愛情?？上?，他錯了。他看錯了黛西這個粗俗淺薄的女人，他看錯了表面上燈紅酒綠而精神上空虛無聊的社會。他生活在夢幻之中，被黛西拋棄，被社會冷落，最終釀成了無法挽回的悲劇。

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紐約度過的，因為蓋茨比舉辦的那些燈火輝煌、光彩炫目的宴會使我記憶猶新，所以我仍然可以聽到微弱的音樂聲和歡笑聲不斷地從他的園子里飄過來，還有一輛輛汽車在他的車道上開來開去。一天晚上我確實聽見那兒有一輛汽車，也看見車燈照在他門前的臺階上。我沒有去調(diào)查。那大概是最后一位客人，剛從天涯海角歸來，還不知道宴會早已收場了。

在最后那個晚上，我的行李已經(jīng)收拾好了，車子也賣給了雜貨店老板，我走過去又看了一眼那座龐大而零亂的、意味著失敗的房子。白色臺階不知被哪個男孩用磚頭寫了一個臟字兒，映在月光里分外醒目，于是我把它擦了，鞋子在石頭上蹭出沙沙的響聲。然后我又漫步到海邊，仰天躺在沙灘上。

那些海濱大別墅現(xiàn)在大多已經(jīng)關(guān)閉了，除了海灣上一只渡船的幽暗飄移的燈光，四周幾乎沒有燈火。當(dāng)明月上升的時候，那些微不足道的房屋慢慢消逝，我逐漸看見了當(dāng)年曾令荷蘭水手眼睛大放異彩的這個古島——一片清新碧綠的新世界。它那些消失了的樹木，那些為蓋茨比的別墅讓路而被砍伐的樹木，曾經(jīng)一度迎風(fēng)飄拂，在這里低聲響應(yīng)著人類最后的也是最偉大的夢想；在那個曇花一現(xiàn)的奇妙的瞬間，人在面對這個新大陸時一定是屏息驚異，不由自主地墮入他既不理解也不企求的一種美學(xué)的觀賞中，在歷史上最后一次面對著和他感到驚奇的能力相稱的奇觀。

當(dāng)我坐在那里緬懷那個古老的、未知的世界時，我也想起了蓋茨比第一次認(rèn)出了黛西的那個碼頭的盡頭的那盞綠燈時所感到的巨大驚奇。他經(jīng)歷了漫漫長路才來到這片草坪上，那時候他的夢一定就近在眼前，他幾乎不可能抓不住的。他不知道那個夢已經(jīng)被丟在他背后了，丟在這個城市不知何處的一片無垠的混沌之中了，在那里，美利堅合眾國的黑黝黝的田野在夜色中向前伸展。

蓋茨比信奉這盞綠燈，這個逐年在我們眼前漸漸遠(yuǎn)去的極樂未來。它從前逃脫了我們的追求，不過沒關(guān)系——明天我們跑得更快一點，把手臂伸得更遠(yuǎn)一點……總有一天……

于是我們奮力向前劃，逆流向上的小舟，不停地倒退，進(jìn)入了過去。

實戰(zhàn)提升

作者介紹

費·司各特·菲茨杰拉德（1896—1940），美國小說家。1920年出版了長篇小說《人間天堂》，從此出了名，小說出版后他與姍爾達(dá)結(jié)婚。婚后攜妻寄居巴黎，結(jié)識了安德遜、海明威等多位美國作家。1925年《了不起的蓋茨比》問世，奠定了他在現(xiàn)代美國文學(xué)史上的地位，成了20年代“爵士時代”的發(fā)言人和“迷惘的一代”的代表作家之一。

單詞注解

incessant[in5sesnt]adj.不停的，連續(xù)的，持續(xù)不斷的

transitory[5trAnsitEri]adj.短暫的；瞬息的

aesthetic[i:s5Wetik]adj.美學(xué)的；美的；藝術(shù)的

ceaselessly[5si:slisli]adv.不停地；持續(xù)地

名句大搜索

那大概是最后一位客人，剛從天涯海角歸來，還不知道宴會早已收場了。

他不知道那個夢已經(jīng)被丟在他背后了，丟在這個城市不知何處的一片無垠的混沌之中了，在那里，美利堅合眾國的黑黝黝的田野在夜色中向前伸展。

于是我們奮力向前劃，逆流向上的小舟，不停地倒退，進(jìn)入了過去。