《了不起的盖茨比·Chapter IX》第10节
I mentioned Gatsby. “Oh-h!” She looked at me over again. “Will you just—What was your name?” She vanished. In a moment Meyer Wolfshiem stood solemnly in the doorway, holding out both hands. He drew me into his office, remarking in a reverent voice that it was a sad time for all of us, and offered me a cigar. “My memory goes back to when first I met him,” he said. “A young major just out of the army and covered over with medals he got in the war. He was so hard up he had to keep on wearing his uniform because he couldn’t buy some regular clothes. First time I saw him was when he came into Winebrenner’s poolroom at Forty-third Street and asked for a job. He hadn’t eat anything for a couple of days. ‘Come on have some lunch with me,’ I said. He ate more than four dollars’ worth of food in half an hour.” “Did you start him in business?” I inquired. “Start him! I made him.” “Oh.” “I raised him up out of nothing, right out of the gutter. I saw right away he was a fine-appearing, gentlemanly young man, and when he told me he was at Oggsford I knew I could use him good. I got him to join the American Legion and he used to stand high there. Right off he did some work for a client of mine up to Albany. We were so thick like that in everything”—he held up two bulbous fingers—“always together.”
注释摘要
这一节的戏剧性全在一个名字的魔力上。尼克在门口与那位“可爱的犹太女人”纠缠了半天，对方态度强硬，坚称沃尔夫山姆先生去了芝加哥。可当尼克只是简单地“提到了盖茨比”——“I mentioned Gatsby”——一切瞬间改变。“Oh-h!”她重新打量他，问了他的名字，然后消失了。盖茨比这个名字就是通行证，它在这间办公室里依然拥有某种不可言说的分量，尽管它的主人…