《了不起的盖茨比·Chapter III》第22节
I began to like New York, the racy, adventurous feel of it at night, and the satisfaction that the constant flicker of men and women and machines gives to the restless eye. I liked to walk up Fifth Avenue and pick out romantic women from the crowd and imagine that in a few minutes I was going to enter into their lives, and no one would ever know or disapprove. Sometimes, in my mind, I followed them to their apartments on the corners of hidden streets, and they turned and smiled back at me before they faded through a door into warm darkness. At the enchanted metropolitan twilight I felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and felt it in others—poor young clerks who loitered in front of windows waiting until it was time for a solitary restaurant dinner—young clerks in the dusk, wasting the most poignant moments of night and life. Again at eight o’clock, when the dark lanes of the Forties were lined five deep with throbbing taxicabs, bound for the theatre district, I felt a sinking in my heart. Forms leaned together in the taxis as they waited, and voices sang, and there was laughter from unheard jokes, and lighted cigarettes made unintelligible circles inside. Imagining that I, too, was hurrying towards gaiety and sharing their intimate excitement, I wished them well.
注释摘要
这段文字发生在尼克叙述完盖茨比那个喧嚣而混乱的派对之后。他忽然停下对三场派对的记录，回过头来向读者交代自己那个夏天其余时间的真实生活。我们因此得知，那些夜夜笙歌的场面并不构成他的日常。他每天清晨匆匆穿过纽约下城的白色峡谷般的街道，去诚信信托公司上班，和那些债券推销员同僚们在拥挤昏暗的餐厅里吃小猪肉肠和土豆泥。他甚至在泽西城有过一段短暂的办公室恋情，但对方哥…