《了不起的盖茨比·Chapter VIII》第12节
They had difficulty in locating the sister, Catherine. She must have broken her rule against drinking that night, for when she arrived she was stupid with liquor and unable to understand that the ambulance had already gone to Flushing. When they convinced her of this, she immediately fainted, as if that was the intolerable part of the affair. Someone, kind or curious, took her in his car and drove her in the wake of her sister’s body. Until long after midnight a changing crowd lapped up against the front of the garage, while George Wilson rocked himself back and forth on the couch inside. For a while the door of the office was open, and everyone who came into the garage glanced irresistibly through it. Finally someone said it was a shame, and closed the door. Michaelis and several other men were with him; first, four or five men, later two or three men. Still later Michaelis had to ask the last stranger to wait there fifteen minutes longer, while he went back to his own place and made a pot of coffee. After that, he stayed there alone with Wilson until dawn. About three o’clock the quality of Wilson’s incoherent muttering changed—he grew quieter and began to talk about the yellow car. He announced that he had a way of finding out whom the yellow car belonged to, and then he blurted out that a couple of months ago his wife had come from the city with her face bruised and her nose swollen.
注释摘要
这段文字将镜头从车祸现场转入事件余波中最冷峻的人性观察。尼克此刻的口吻有一种近乎纪录片的克制，但在平静之下藏着难以消解的悲哀。他先说“他们费了些周折才找到那个妹妹，凯瑟琳”——这里的“difficulty”已经暗示出凯瑟琳所属的那个阶层人际联系的松散性，一个人出了事，连最近的亲人都无法立刻找到。 接下来写凯瑟琳“大概那晚破了戒喝了酒”，因为到场时“stup…