《了不起的盖茨比·Chapter IV》第10节
“All right, old sport,” called Gatsby. We slowed down. Taking a white card from his wallet, he waved it before the man’s eyes. “Right you are,” agreed the policeman, tipping his cap. “Know you next time, Mr. Gatsby. Excuse me!” “What was that?” I inquired. “The picture of Oxford?” “I was able to do the commissioner a favour once, and he sends me a Christmas card every year.” Over the great bridge, with the sunlight through the girders making a constant flicker upon the moving cars, with the city rising up across the river in white heaps and sugar lumps all built with a wish out of nonolfactory money. The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world. A dead man passed us in a hearse heaped with blooms, followed by two carriages with drawn blinds, and by more cheerful carriages for friends. The friends looked out at us with the tragic eyes and short upper lips of southeastern Europe, and I was glad that the sight of Gatsby’s splendid car was included in their sombre holiday. As we crossed Blackwell’s Island a limousine passed us, driven by a white chauffeur, in which sat three modish negroes, two bucks and a girl. I laughed aloud as the yolks of their eyeballs rolled toward us in haughty rivalry.
注释摘要
这一节发生在一场超速行驶中。盖茨比带着尼克从西卵驶向纽约城，途中被一名摩托骑警拦下。盖茨比只用一张白卡片在警察眼前一晃，对方立刻毕恭毕敬地放行，甚至说“下次认识您了，盖茨比先生”。尼克的第一反应是问这张卡片是不是“牛津的照片”，这个猜测本身充满了讽刺——他半信半疑，以为这又是盖茨比用来佐证自己出身的一套道具。但盖茨比的解释更实在：他曾帮过警察局长一个忙，于…