周五朗读 | 了不起的盖茨比，了不起的20年代

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第7位朗读者

Hansen Lin

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午夜之子

原作者：F. Scott Fitzgerald

朗读者：Hansen Lin

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"It was a strange coincidence," I said.

"But it wasn't a coincidence at all."

"Why not?" "Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay." Then it had not been merely the stars to which he had aspired on that June night. He came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor.

"He wants to know," continued Jordan, "if you'll invite Daisy to your house some afternoon and then let him come over." The modesty of the demand shook me. He had waited five years and bought a mansion where he dispensed starlight to casual mothsso that he could "come over." some afternoon to a stranger's garden.

"Did I have to know all this before he could ask such a little thing?"

"He's afraid, he's waited so long. He thought you might be offended. You see, he's a regular tough underneath it all." Something worried me.

"Why didn't he ask you to arrange a meeting?"

"He wants her to see his house," she explained.

"And your house is right next door."

"Oh!" "I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties, some night," went on Jordan, "but she never did. Then he began asking people casually if they knew her, and I was the first one he found.

It was that night he sent for me at his dance, and you should have heard the elaborate way he worked up to it.

Of course, I immediately suggested a luncheon in New York and I thought he'd go mad: "'I don't want to do anything out of the way!' he kept saying. 'I want to see her right next door.' "When I said you were a particular friend of Tom's, he started to abandon the whole idea. He doesn't know very much about Tom, though he says he's read a Chicago paper for years just on the chance of catching a glimpse of Daisy's name."

It was dark now, and as we dipped under a little bridge I put my arm around Jordan's golden shoulder and drew her toward me and asked her to dinner.

Suddenly I wasn't thinking of Daisy and Gatsby any more, but of this clean, hard, limited person, who dealt in universal scepticism, and who leaned back jauntily just within the circle of my arm. A phrase began to beat in my ears with a sort of heady excitement: "There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired."

"And Daisy ought to have something in her life," murmured Jordan to me.

"Does she want to see Gatsby?"

"She's not to know about it. Gatsby doesn't want her to know. You're just supposed to invite her to tea." We passed a barrier of dark trees, and then the facade of Fifty-ninth Street, a block of delicate pale light, beamed down into the park. Unlike Gatsby and Tom Buchanan, I had no girl whose disembodied face floated along the dark cornices and blinding signs, and so I drew up the girl beside me, tightening my arms. Her wan, scornful mouth smiled, and so I drew her up again closer, this time to my face.

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“真是奇怪的巧合。”我说。

“但这根本不是什么巧合。”

“为什么不是？”

“盖茨比买下那座房子，就是因为这样一来黛西就在海湾对面嘛。”

这么说来，六月里那个夜晚他所向往的不单单是天上的过斗了。盖茨比在我眼中有了生命，忽然之间从他那子宫般的毫无目的的豪华里分娩了出来。

“他想知道，”乔丹继续说，“你肯不肯哪一天下午请黛西到你住处来，然后让他过来坐一坐。”

这个要求如此微不足道，真使我震惊。他居然等了五年，又买了一座大厦，在那里把星光施与来来往往的飞蛾——为的是在哪个下午他可以到一个陌生人的花园里“坐一坐”。

“我非得光知道这一切，然后他才能托我这点小事吗？”

“他害怕，他等得太久了。他想你也许会见怪。尽管如此，他其实是非常顽强的。”

我还是放不下心。

“他为什么不请你安排一次见面呢？”

“他要让她看看他的房子，”她解释道，“你的房子又刚好在紧隔壁。”

“哦！”

“我想他大概指望哪天晚上她会翩然而至，光临他的一次宴会，”乔丹继续说，“但是她始终没有来过、后来他就开始有意无意地问人家是否认识她，而我是他找到的第一个人。就是在舞会上他派人去请我的那一晚，可惜你没听到他是怎样煞费苦心、转弯抹角才说到了正题，我自然马上建议在纽约吃一顿午餐——不料他急得像要发疯：‘我可不要做什么不对头的事情！’他一再说，‘我只要在隔壁见见她。’

“后来我说你是汤姆的好朋友，他又想完全打消这个主意。他对汤姆的情况不太了解，虽然他说他有好几年天天看一份芝加哥报纸，希望碰巧可以看到黛西的名字。”

这时天黑了，我们的马车走到一座小桥下面，我伸出胳臂搂住乔丹的金黄色肩膀，把她拉到我身边，请她一起吃晚饭。忽然之间，我想的已经不是黛两和盖茨比，而是这个干净、结实、智力有限的人，她对世问的切都抱怀疑态度，她怪精神地往后靠在我伸出的胳臂上。一个警句开始在我耳中令人兴奋地激动鸣响：“世界上只有被追求者和追求者，忙碌的人和疲倦的人。”

“黛西生活里也应当有点安慰。”乔丹喃喃地对我说。

“她愿意见盖茨比吗？”

“事光是不让她知道的。盖茨比不要她知道。你只是请她来喝茶。”

我们经过了一排黑黝黝的树，然后五十九号街的高楼里一片柔和的灯光照到下面公园中来。跟盖茨比和汤姆·布坎农不一样，我的眼前没有什么情人的面影沿着阴暗的檐口和耀眼的招牌缥缈浮动，于是我把身边这个女孩子拉得更近一点，同时胳臂搂得更紧。她那张苍白、轻藐的嘴嫣然一笑，于是我把她拉得更紧一点，这次一直拉到贴着我的脸。

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About the Book

推荐书籍

作者：菲茨杰拉德

出版社：人民文学出版社

译者：姚乃强

出版年：

2004-06

豆瓣评分：8.3

About the Author

写书的人

弗·司各特·菲茨杰拉德 (Francis Scott Fitzgerald 1896-1940年)男，他也是美国著名编剧，是“爵士时代”最重要的代表人。他塑造的人物形象大多是一群战后追求梦幻的青年男女，但他们在生活经历和精神世界方面都与作者有着密切的内在联系。从这些内在联系中，我们可以看到菲茨杰拉德从追求理想的“美国梦”到梦幻破灭的过程，或者说菲茨杰拉德的“天路历程”。菲茨杰拉德的魅力来自于他清晰的叙述，优雅的文风，多姿多彩、点铁成金的遣词造句，这种风格在他的短篇小说中得到了最好的体现。他的每一篇成功的作品都是诗人的敏感和戏剧家的想象力的结晶，都是他的艺术才能发挥到炉火纯青的地步的产物。

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《了不起的盖茨比》是他最著名的代表作。二十世纪二十年代的美国，空气里弥漫着欢歌与纵饮的气息。一个偶然的机会，穷职员尼克闯入了挥金如土的大富翁盖茨比隐秘的世界，惊讶地发现，他内心惟一的牵绊竟是对河岸那盏小小的绿灯——灯影婆娑中，住着心爱的黛西。然而，冰冷的现实容不下缥缈的梦，到头来，盖茨比心中的女神只不过是凡尘俗世的物质女郎。当一切真相大白，盖茨比的悲剧人生亦如烟花般，璀璨只是一瞬，幻灭才是永恒。一阕华丽的“爵士时代”的挽歌，在菲茨杰拉德笔下，如诗如梦，在美国当代文学史上留下了墨色浓重的印痕。