《了不起的盖茨比·Chapter III》第20节
Blinded by the glare of the headlights and confused by the incessant groaning of the horns, the apparition stood swaying for a moment before he perceived the man in the duster. “Wha’s matter?” he inquired calmly. “Did we run outa gas?” “Look!” Half a dozen fingers pointed at the amputated wheel—he stared at it for a moment, and then looked upward as though he suspected that it had dropped from the sky. “It came off,” someone explained. He nodded. “At first I din’ notice we’d stopped.” A pause. Then, taking a long breath and straightening his shoulders, he remarked in a determined voice: “Wonder’ff tell me where there’s a gas’line station?” At least a dozen men, some of them a little better off than he was, explained to him that wheel and car were no longer joined by any physical bond. “Back out,” he suggested after a moment. “Put her in reverse.” “But the wheel’s off!” He hesitated. “No harm in trying,” he said. The caterwauling horns had reached a crescendo and I turned away and cut across the lawn toward home. I glanced back once. A wafer of a moon was shining over Gatsby’s house, making the night fine as before, and surviving the laughter and the sound of his still glowing garden. A sudden emptiness seemed to flow now from the windows and the great doors, endowing with complete isolation the figure of the host, who stood on the porch, his hand up in a formal gesture of farewell.
注释摘要
我们眼前是派对结束后一场醉醺醺的交通事故，而菲茨杰拉德把它处理得如同闹剧与默片。那个被刺目车灯照得睁不开眼的男人，被尼克称为“apparition”——幽灵、幻影，用词极准，因为他从撞毁的车里往外爬的过程，被写成一点一点、一节一节地出现，像个不真实的鬼魂从机器残骸里诞生出来。他脚上那只大得出奇、摇摆不定的舞鞋试探地刨着地面，“pawing tentativ…