《了不起的盖茨比·Chapter VI》第5节
I remember the portrait of him up in Gatsby’s bedroom, a grey, florid man with a hard, empty face—the pioneer debauchee, who during one phase of American life brought back to the Eastern seaboard the savage violence of the frontier brothel and saloon. It was indirectly due to Cody that Gatsby drank so little. Sometimes in the course of gay parties women used to rub champagne into his hair; for himself he formed the habit of letting liquor alone. And it was from Cody that he inherited money—a legacy of twenty-five thousand dollars. He didn’t get it. He never understood the legal device that was used against him, but what remained of the millions went intact to Ella Kaye. He was left with his singularly appropriate education; the vague contour of Jay Gatsby had filled out to the substantiality of a man. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ He told me all this very much later, but I’ve put it down here with the idea of exploding those first wild rumours about his antecedents, which weren’t even faintly true. Moreover he told it to me at a time of confusion, when I had reached the point of believing everything and nothing about him. So I take advantage of this short halt, while Gatsby, so to speak, caught his breath, to clear this set of misconceptions away.
注释摘要
尼克在这一段开头回忆了盖茨比卧室里挂着的那幅丹·科迪的画像，给我们描绘了一个灰白头发、面色红润、表情坚硬而空洞的男人。请注意那个短语"hard, empty face"——坚硬和空洞并置，这是菲茨杰拉德对那一代淘金者极为精准的概括。尼克称他为"the pioneer debauchee"，拓荒者式的放荡者，这本身就是一个浓缩的反讽。在美国历史的某一阶段，正…