《了不起的盖茨比·Chapter VIII》第3节
But he knew that he was in Daisy’s house by a colossal accident. However glorious might be his future as Jay Gatsby, he was at present a penniless young man without a past, and at any moment the invisible cloak of his uniform might slip from his shoulders. So he made the most of his time. He took what he could get, ravenously and unscrupulously—eventually he took Daisy one still October night, took her because he had no real right to touch her hand. He might have despised himself, for he had certainly taken her under false pretences. I don’t mean that he had traded on his phantom millions, but he had deliberately given Daisy a sense of security; he let her believe that he was a person from much the same strata as herself—that he was fully able to take care of her. As a matter of fact, he had no such facilities—he had no comfortable family standing behind him, and he was liable at the whim of an impersonal government to be blown anywhere about the world. But he didn’t despise himself and it didn’t turn out as he had imagined. He had intended, probably, to take what he could and go—but now he found that he had committed himself to the following of a grail. He knew that Daisy was extraordinary, but he didn’t realize just how extraordinary a “nice” girl could be. She vanished into her rich house, into her rich, full life, leaving Gatsby—nothing. He felt married to her, that was all.
注释摘要
这段文字是尼克在转述盖茨比对自己初恋的回顾，却浸润着尼克本人那种既同情又审视的复杂语调。字面上的故事很简单：年轻的军官盖茨比偶然闯入了黛西的家，知道自己身份虚假、一文不名，却仍然“贪婪而不择手段”地占有了她，因为他根本不具备触摸她的真正权利。他原本打定主意只是占点便宜就走，却发现自己在追随一件圣物。而黛西最终消失在她的富贵宅邸和富足生活里，留给盖茨比的是一…