《了不起的盖茨比·Chapter V》第14节
His bedroom was the simplest room of all—except where the dresser was garnished with a toilet set of pure dull gold. Daisy took the brush with delight, and smoothed her hair, whereupon Gatsby sat down and shaded his eyes and began to laugh. “It’s the funniest thing, old sport,” he said hilariously. “I can’t—When I try to—” He had passed visibly through two states and was entering upon a third. After his embarrassment and his unreasoning joy he was consumed with wonder at her presence. He had been full of the idea so long, dreamed it right through to the end, waited with his teeth set, so to speak, at an inconceivable pitch of intensity. Now, in the reaction, he was running down like an over-wound clock. Recovering himself in a minute he opened for us two hulking patent cabinets which held his massed suits and dressing-gowns and ties, and his shirts, piled like bricks in stacks a dozen high. “I’ve got a man in England who buys me clothes. He sends over a selection of things at the beginning of each season, spring and fall.” He took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them, one by one, before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel, which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table in many-coloured disarray. While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher—shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange, with monograms of indian blue. Suddenly, with a strained sound, Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily.
注释摘要
这段文字发生在盖茨比领着黛西和尼克参观完豪宅之后，进入他的私人卧室。叙述者尼克首先注意到的是整栋房子最朴素的空间里唯一的例外——梳妆台上那套纯暗金色的梳洗用具。请注意这个修饰词"pure dull gold"，"dull"（暗沉的）用得极为精准，它不是炫目的金光，而是沉郁的、有分量的财富，暗示着盖茨比的钱已经多到可以不张扬，但质地却是实打实的贵重。这套梳洗…