《了不起的盖茨比·Chapter VII》第24节
Gatsby walked over and stood beside her. “Daisy, that’s all over now,” he said earnestly. “It doesn’t matter any more. Just tell him the truth—that you never loved him—and it’s all wiped out forever.” She looked at him blindly. “Why—how could I love him—possibly?” “You never loved him.” She hesitated. Her eyes fell on Jordan and me with a sort of appeal, as though she realized at last what she was doing—and as though she had never, all along, intended doing anything at all. But it was done now. It was too late. “I never loved him,” she said, with perceptible reluctance. “Not at Kapiolani?” demanded Tom suddenly. “No.” From the ballroom beneath, muffled and suffocating chords were drifting up on hot waves of air. “Not that day I carried you down from the Punch Bowl to keep your shoes dry?” There was a husky tenderness in his tone … “Daisy?” “Please don’t.” Her voice was cold, but the rancour was gone from it. She looked at Gatsby. “There, Jay,” she said—but her hand as she tried to light a cigarette was trembling. Suddenly she threw the cigarette and the burning match on the carpet. “Oh, you want too much!” she cried to Gatsby. “I love you now—isn’t that enough? I can’t help what’s past.” She began to sob helplessly. “I did love him once—but I loved you too.”
注释摘要
这一段是整场广场酒店对峙中情感最赤裸、也最残忍的转向。盖茨比走过去站在黛西身边，他此前的自信和进攻性在这里变成了一种近乎恳求的专注。他说“那一切都过去了，现在不要紧了。只要告诉他真相——说你从没爱过他——一切就永远一笔勾销”，这个句子里埋着他整个计划的逻辑：他以为过去可以被语言抹除，以为黛西的一句否认就能让五年时光像账本上的错误一样被划掉。英文原文里“wi…