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It was lonely for a day or so until one morning some man； more recently arrived than I； stopped me on the road。 头几天我感到孤单，直到一天早上有个人，比我更是新来乍到的，在路上拦住了我。
“How do you get to West Egg village？” he asked helplessly。 〃到西卵村去怎么走啊？〃他无可奈何地问我。
I told him。 And as I walked on I was lonely no longer。 I was a guide； a pathfinder； an original settler。 He had casually conferred on me the freedom of the neighborhood。 我告诉了他。我再继续往前走的时候，我不再感到孤单了。我成了领路人、开拓者、一个原始的移民。他无意之中授予了我这一带地方的荣誉市民权。
And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees； just as things grow in fast movies； I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer。 眼看阳光明媚，树木忽然间长满了叶子，就像电影里的东西长得那么快，我就又产生了那个熟悉的信念，觉得生命随着夏天的来临又重新开始了。
There was so much to read； for one thing； and so much fine health to be pulled down out of the young breathgiving air。 I bought a dozen volumes on banking and credit and investment securities； and they stood on my shelf in red and gold like new money from the mint； promising to unfold the shining secrets that only Midas and Morgan and Maecenas knew。 And I had the high intention of reading many other books besides。 I was rather literary in college—one year I wrote a series of very solemn and obvious editorials for the “Yale News。”—and now I was going to bring back all such things into my life and bee again that most limited of all specialists； the “wellrounded man。” This isn’t just an epigram—life is much more successfully looked at from a single window； after all。 有那么多书要读，这是一点，同时从清新宜人的空气中也有那么多营养要汲取。我买了十来本有关银行业、信贷和投资证券的书籍，一本本红色烫金封皮的书立在书架上，好像造币厂新铸的钱币一样，准备揭示迈达斯①、摩根②和米赛纳斯③的秘诀。除此之外，我还有雄心要读许多别的书。我在大学的时候是喜欢舞文弄墨的…有一年我给《耶鲁新闻》写过一连串一本正经而又平淡无奇的社论…现在我准备把诸如此类的东西重新纳入我的生活，重新成为〃通才〃，也就是那种最浅薄的专家。这并不只是一个俏皮的警句…光从一个窗口去观察人生究竟要成功得多。①迈达斯（Midas），希腊神话中的国王，曾求神赐予点金术。②摩根（Morgan），美国财阀。③米赛纳斯（maecenas），古罗马大财主。
It was a matter of chance that I should have rented a house in one of the strangest munities in North America。 It was on that slender riotous island which extends itself due east of New York—and where there are； among other natural curiosities； two unusual formations of land。 Twenty miles from the city a pair of enormous eggs； identical in contour and separated only by a courtesy bay； jut out into the most domesticated body of salt water in the Western hemisphere； the great wet barnyard of Long Island Sound。 they are not perfect ovals—like the egg in the Columbus story； they are both crushed flat at the contact end—but their physical resemblance must be a source of perpetual confusion to the gulls that fly overhead。 to the wingless a more arresting phenomenon is their dissimilarity in every particular except shape and size。 纯粹出于偶然，我租的这所房子在北美最离奇的一个村镇。这个村镇位于纽约市正东那个细长的奇形怪状的小岛上那里除了其他大然奇观以外，还有两个地方形状异乎寻常。离城二十英里路，有一对其大无比的鸡蛋般的半岛，外形一模一样，中间隔着一条小湾，一直伸进西半球那片最恬静的咸水，长岛海峡那个巨大的潮湿的场院。它们并不是正椭圆形…而是像哥伦布故事里的鸡蛋一样，在碰过的那头都是压碎了的…但是它们外貌的相似一定是使从头上飞过的海鸥惊异不已的源泉。对于没有翅膀的人类来说，一个更加饶有趣味的现象，却是这两个地方除了形状大小之外，在每一个方面都截然不同。
I lived at West Egg； the—well； the less fashionable of the two； though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them。 my house was at the very tip of the egg； only fifty yards from the Sound； and squeezed between two huge places that rented for twelve or fifteen thousand a season。 the one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard—it was a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy； with a tower on one side； spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy； and a marble swimming pool； and more than forty acres of lawn and garden。 it was Gatsby’s mansion。 Or； rather； as I didn’t know Mr。 Gatsby； it was a mansion inhabited by a gentleman of that name。 My own house was an eyesore； but it was a small eyesore； and it had been overlooked； so I had a view of the water； a partial view of my neighbor’s lawn； and the consoling proximity of millionaires—all for eighty dollars a month。 我住在西卵，这是两个地方中比较不那么时髦的一个，不过这是一个非常肤浅的标签，不足以表示二者之间那种离奇古怪而又很不吉祥的对比。我的房子紧靠在鸡蛋的顶端，离海湾只有五十码，挤在两座每季租金要一万二到一万五的大别墅中间。我右边的那一幢，不管按什么标准来说，都是一个庞然大物它是诺曼底①某市政厅的翻版，一边有一座簇新的塔楼，上面疏疏落落地覆盖着一层常春藤，还有一座大理石游泳池，以及四十多英亩的草坪和花园。这是盖茨比的公馆。或者更确切地说这是一位姓盖茨比的阔人所住的公馆，因为我还不认识盖茨比光生。我自己的房子实在难看，幸而很小，没有被人注意，因此我才有缘欣赏一片海景，欣赏我邻居草坪的一部分，并且能以与百万富翁为邻而引以自慰所有这一切每月只需出八十美元。 ①诺曼底（Normandy），法国北部一地区，多古色古香的城堡。
Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water； and the history of the summer really begins on the evening I drove over there to have dinner with the Tom Buchanans。 Daisy was my second cousin once removed； and I’d known Tom in college。 And just after the war I spent two days with them in Chicago。 小湾对岸，东卵豪华住宅区的洁白的宫殿式的大厦沿着水边光彩夺目，那个夏天的故事是从我开车去那边到汤姆？布坎农夫妇家吃饭的那个晚上才真正开始的。黛西是我远房表妹，汤姆是我在大学里就认识的。大战刚结束之后，我在芝加哥还在他们家住过两天。
Her husband； among various physical acplishments； had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven—a national figure in a way； one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twentyone that everything afterward savors of anticlimax。 His family were enormously wealthy—even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach—but now he’d left Chicago and e East in a fashion that rather took your breath away： for instance； he’d brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest。 it was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that。 她的丈夫，除了擅长其他各种运动之外，曾经是纽黑文有史以来最伟大的橄榄球运动员之…也可说是个全国闻名的人物，这种人二十一岁就在有限范围内取得登峰造极的成就，从此以后一切都不免有走下坡路的味道了。他家里非常有钱…还在大学时他那样任意花钱已经遭人非议，但现在他离开了芝加哥搬到东部来，搬家的那个排场可真要使人惊讶不已。比方说，他从森林湖①运来整整一群打马球用的马匹。在我这一辈人中竞然还有人阔到能够干这种事，实在令人难以置信。①森林湖（Lake Forest），伊利诺州东北部的小城。
Why they came East I don’t know。 They had spent a year in France for no particular reason； and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together。 This was a permanent move； said Daisy over the telephone； but I didn’t believe it—I had no sight into Daisy’s heart； but I felt that Tom would drift on forever seeking； a little wistfully； for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game。 他们为什么到东部来，我并不知道。他们并没有什么特殊的理由，在法国待了一年，后来又不安定地东飘西荡，所去的地方都有人打马球，而且大家都有钱。这次是定居了，黛西在电话里说。可是我并不相信…我看不透黛西的心思，不过我觉得汤姆会为追寻某场无法重演的球赛的戏剧性的激奋，就这样略有点怅惘地永远飘荡下去。
And so it happened that on a warm windy evening I drove over to East Egg to see two old friends whom I scarcely knew at all。 Their house was even more elaborate than I expected； a cheerful redandwhite Georgian Colonial mansion； overlooking the bay。 The lawn started at the beach and ran toward the front door for a quarter of a mile； jumping over sundials and brick walks and burning gardens—finally when it reached the house drifting up the side in bright vines as though from the