听英文名着可以耳朵怀孕 | 里昂读《了不起的盖茨比》- 031

听英文名著可以耳朵怀孕

里昂读《了不起的盖茨比》

试听部分

　　“I’m sorry about the clock,” he said.

"对不起，把钟碰了。"他说。

　　My own face had now assumed a deep tropical burn. I couldn’t muster up a single commonplace out of the thousand in my head.

我自己的脸也涨得通红，像被热带的太阳晒过那样。我脑子里虽有千百句客套话，可是一句也说不出来。

　　“It’s an old clock,” I told them idiotically.

"是一架很旧的钟。"我呆头呆脑地告诉他们。

　　I think we all believed for a moment that it had smashed in pieces on the floor.

我想我们大家当时有一会儿都相信那架钟已经在地板上砸得粉碎了。

　　“We haven’t met for many years,” said Daisy, her voice as matter-of-fact as it could ever be.

"我们多年不见了。"黛西说，她的声音尽可能地平板。

　　“Five years next November.”

"到十一月整整五年。"

　　The automatic quality of Gatsby’s answer set us all back at least another minute. I had them both on their feet with the desperate suggestion that they help me make tea in the kitchen when the demoniac Finn brought it in on a tray.

盖茨比脱口而出的回答至少使我们大家又愣了一分钟。我急中生智，建议他们帮我到厨房里去预备茶，他们俩立刻站了起来，正在这时那魔鬼般的芬兰女佣人用托盘把茶端了进来。

　　Amid the welcome confusion of cups and cakes a certain physical decency established itself. Gatsby got himself into a shadow and, while Daisy and I talked, looked conscientiously from one to the other of us with tense, unhappy eyes. However, as calmness wasn’t an end in itself, I made an excuse at the first possible moment, and got to my feet.

递茶杯、传蛋糕所造成的忙乱大受欢迎，在忙乱之中建立了一种有形的体统。盖茨比躲到了一边去，当我跟黛西交谈时，他用紧张而痛苦的眼睛认真地在我们两人之间看来看去。可是，因为平静本身并不是目的，我一有机会就找了个借口，站起身来要走。

　　“Where are you going?” demanded Gatsby in immediate alarm.

"你上哪儿去？"盖茨比马上惊慌地问道。

　　“I’ll be back.”

"我就回来。"

　　“I’ve got to speak to you about something before you go.”

"你走以前，我有话要跟你说。"

　　He followed me wildly into the kitchen, closed the door, and whispered:“Oh, God!” in a miserable way.

他发疯似的跟我走进厨房，关上了门，然后很痛苦地低声说："啊，天哪！"

“What’s the matter?”

"怎么啦？"

　　“This is a terrible mistake,” he said, shaking his head from side to side, “a terrible, terrible mistake.”

"这是个大错，"他把头摇来摇去地说，"大错而特错。"

　　“You’re just embarrassed, that’s all,” and luckily I added: “Daisy’s embarrassed too.”

"你不过是难为情罢了，没别的。"幸好我又补了一句，"黛西也难为情。"

　　“She’s embarrassed?” he repeated incredulously.

"她难为情？"他大不以为然地重复了我的话。

　　“Just as much as you are.”

"跟你同样难为情。"

　　“Don’t talk so loud.”

"声音不要那么大。"

　　“You’re acting like a little boy,” I broke out impatiently. “Not only that, but you’re rude. Daisy’s sitting in there all alone.”

"你的行动像一个小孩，"我不耐烦地发作说，"不但如此，你也很没礼貌。黛西孤零零一个人坐在那里面。"

　　He raised his hand to stop my words, looked at me with unforgettable reproach, and, opening the door cautiously, went back into the other room.

他举起手来不让我再讲下去，怀着令人难忘的怨气看了我一眼，然后战战兢兢地打开了门，又回到那间屋子里去。

　　I walked out the back way—just as Gatsby had when he had made his nervous circuit of the house half an hour before—and ran for a huge black knotted tree, whose massed leaves made a fabric against the rain. Once more it was pouring, and my irregular lawn, well-shaved by Gatsby’s gardener, abounded in small, muddy swamps and prehistoric marshes. There was nothing to look at from under the tree except Gatsby’s enormous house, so I stared at it, like Kant at his church steeple, for half an hour. A brewer had built it early in the “period.” craze, a decade before, and there was a story that he’d agreed to pay five years’ taxes on all the neighboring cottages if the owners would have their roofs thatched with straw. Perhaps their refusal took the heart out of his plan to Found a Family—he went into an immediate decline. His children sold his house with the black wreath still on the door. Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry.

我从后门走了出去--半小时前盖茨比也正是从这里出去，精神紧张地绕着房子跑了一圈--奔向一棵黑黝黝的盘缠多节的大树，茂密的树叶构成了一块挡雨的苫布。此刻雨又下大了，我那片不成形的草地，虽然被盖茨比的园丁修剪得很整齐，现在却满是小泥潭和历史悠久的沼泽了。从树底下望出去，除了盖茨比的庞大的房屋之外没有别的东西可看，于是我盯着它看了半个小时，好像康德①盯着他的教堂尖塔一样。这座房子是十年前一位酿酒商在那个"仿古热"初期建造的，并且还有一个传闻，说他曾答应为所有邻近的小型别墅付五年的税款，只要各位房主肯在屋顶铺上茅草。也许他们的拒绝使他"创建家业"的计划受到了致命的打击--他立刻衰颓了。丧事的花圈还挂在门上，他的子女就把房子卖掉了。美国人虽然愿意、甚至渴望去当农奴，可是一向是坚决不肯当乡下佬的。

　　 ①康德（Immanul Kant，1724-1804），德国哲学家。

　　After half an hour, the sun shone again, and the grocer’s automobile rounded Gatsby’s drive with the raw material for his servants’ dinner—I felt sure he wouldn’t eat a spoonful. A maid began opening the upper windows of his house, appeared momentarily in each, and, leaning from a large central bay, spat meditatively into the garden. It was time I went back. While the rain continued it had seemed like the murmur of their voices, rising and swelling a little now and then with gusts of emotion. But in the new silence I felt that silence had fallen within the house too.

半小时以后，太阳又出来了，食品店的送货汽车沿着盖茨比的汽车道拐弯，送来他的仆人做晚饭用的原料--我敢肯定他本人一口也吃不下。一个女佣人开始打开楼上的窗户，在每个窗口出现片刻，然后，从正中的大窗户探出身子，若有所思地向花园里啐了一口。该是我回去的时候了。刚才雨下个不停，仿佛是他们俩窃窃私语的声音，不时随着感情的迸发而变得高昂，但是在这新的静寂中，我觉得房子里面也是一片肃静了。

　　I went in—after making every possible noise in the kitchen, short of pushing over the stove—but I don’t believe they heard a sound. They were sitting at either end of the couch, looking at each other as if some question had been asked, or was in the air, and every vestige of embarrassment was gone. Daisy’s face was smeared with tears, and when I came in she jumped up and began wiping at it with her handkerchief before a mirror. But there was a change in Gatsby that was simply confounding. He literally glowed; without a word or a gesture of exultation a new well-being radiated from him and filled the little room.

我走了进去--先在厨房里做出一切可能的响声，就差把炉灶推翻了--但我相信他们什么也没听见。他们两人分坐在长沙发两端，面面相觑，仿佛有什么问题提了出来，或者悬而未决，一切难为情的迹象也都消失了。黛西满面泪痕，我一进来她就跳了起来，用手绢对着一面镜子擦起脸来。但是盖茨比身上却发生了一种令人惶惑的变化。他简直是光芒四射。虽然没有任何表示欣喜的言语姿势，一种新的幸福感从他身上散发出来，充塞了那间小屋子。

　　“Oh, hello, old sport,” he said, as if he hadn’t seen me for years. I thought for a moment he was going to shake hands.

"哦，哈罗，老兄。"他说，仿佛他有好多年没见过我了。有一会儿工夫我还以为他想跟我握手哩。

　　“It’s stopped raining.”

"雨停了。"

　　“Has it?” When he realized what I was talking about, that there were twinkle-bells of sunshine in the room, he smiled like a weather man, like an ecstatic patron of recurrent light, and repeated the news to Daisy. “What do you think of that? It’s stopped raining.”

"是吗？"等他明白我说的是什么，又发觉屋子里阳光闪烁时，他像一个气象预报员又像一个欣喜若狂的回归光守护神似的露出了笑容，又把消息转报给黛西，"你看多有趣，雨停了。"

　　“I’m glad, Jay.” Her throat, full of aching, grieving beauty, told only of her unexpected joy.

"我很高兴，杰伊。"她的声音哀艳动人，可是她吐露的只是她意外的喜悦。

　　“I want you and Daisy to come over to my house,” he said, “I’d like to show her around.”

"我要你和黛西一起到我家里来，"他说，"我很想领她参观参观。"

　　“You’re sure you want me to come?”

"你真的要我来吗？"

　　“Absolutely, old sport.”

"绝对如此，老兄。"

　　Daisy went up-stairs to wash her face—too late I thought with humiliation of my towels—while Gatsby and I waited on the lawn.

黛西上楼去洗脸--我很羞惭地想起了我的毛巾，叮惜为时太晚了--盖茨比和我在草坪上等候。

　　“My house looks well, doesn’t it?” he demanded. “See how the whole front of it catches the light.”