《了不起的盖茨比·Chapter IX》第22节
And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night. Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms further … And one fine morning— So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
注释摘要
尼克此刻一个人躺在沙滩上。他刚刚擦掉了盖茨比白色台阶上那个下流的词，然后漫无目的地走到海边，把身体摊开在沙子上。岸边的豪宅大多已经关闭，海峡上只剩下渡船移动的光影。在这片寂静和黑暗里，月光让那些可有可无的房子渐次融化，他的眼前浮现出这座古老岛屿最初的样子——那个曾让荷兰水手屏息凝神的、新鲜而翠绿的新世界。正是在这样一个冥想时刻，他想到了盖茨比第一次望见黛西…