《了不起的盖茨比·Chapter IV》第5节
I’d seen it. Everybody had seen it. It was a rich cream colour, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hatboxes and supper-boxes and toolboxes, and terraced with a labyrinth of windshields that mirrored a dozen suns. Sitting down behind many layers of glass in a sort of green leather conservatory, we started to town. I had talked with him perhaps half a dozen times in the past month and found, to my disappointment, that he had little to say. So my first impression, that he was a person of some undefined consequence, had gradually faded and he had become simply the proprietor of an elaborate roadhouse next door. And then came that disconcerting ride. We hadn’t reached West Egg village before Gatsby began leaving his elegant sentences unfinished and slapping himself indecisively on the knee of his caramel-coloured suit. “Look here, old sport,” he broke out surprisingly, “what’s your opinion of me, anyhow?” A little overwhelmed, I began the generalized evasions which that question deserves. “Well, I’m going to tell you something about my life,” he interrupted. “I don’t want you to get a wrong idea of me from all these stories you hear.”
注释摘要
尼克可不是头一回见到这辆车，他的语气里带着一丁点儿轻微的讥讽——这车根本不必问“你以前没见过吗”，因为它太招摇了，人人都见过。接下来他对车身的那段描写，可以说每一个词都藏着价值判断。“rich cream colour”这个奶油色本就华贵，再配上“bright with nickel”的镍光闪闪，在那个时代就是金钱在太阳底下直接反光。但真正厉害的是后面两句…