經(jīng)典的開篇不一定留下經(jīng)典的作品，但經(jīng)典的作品多數(shù)要有經(jīng)典的開篇。譬如耳熟能詳A Tale of Two Cities : It was the best of times,it was the worst of times,it was the age of wisdom,it was the age of foolishness,it was the epoch of belief,it was the epoch of incredulity.

it was the season of Light,it was the season of Darkness,it was the spring of hope,it was the winter of despair,we had everything before us,we had nothing before us.

亦或

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.(Pride and Prejudice)

The Great Gatsby的開頭也被引用了再引用。初次讀到驚為天人，見得多了也就麻木了。

In my younger and more vulnerable(without protection ,easily hurt) years my father gave me some advice([u]) that I’ve been turning over(thinking over) in my mind ever since.

“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advanttages that you’ve had.”

我年紀(jì)還輕，閱歷不深的時(shí)候，我父親教導(dǎo)過我一句話，我至今還念念不忘。

“每逢你想要批評任何人的時(shí)候， ”他對我說，“你就記住，這個世界上所有的人，并不是個個都有過你擁有的那些優(yōu)越條件。”

很多人將此作為信條或者毒雞湯或者自由主義等等，但仔細(xì)讀一讀只單純覺得寫得挺好。因?yàn)槲闹懈赣H和Nick也不過是點(diǎn)到為止。

I come to the admission that it has a limit.(I admit that…) Conduct may be founded on the hard rock or the wet marshes, but after a certain point I don’t care what it’s founded on.

盡管Nick(本書的敘述者)對于周圍人種種傾訴的訴求給予理解，默許，逃避，容忍諸如種種。但這些都是有限度的。在他看來:人根本的格調(diào)是天生注定的，人的品行有些似建立在堅(jiān)硬的巖石之上，有些似建于沼澤之中。但這些如超過限度就隨它們?nèi)チ恕?/p>

If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous(remarkable) about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life(hope), as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away.

假如人的品格是一系列連續(xù)不斷的成功的姿態(tài)，那么這個人身上就有一種瑰麗的異彩，他對于人生的希望具有一種高度的敏感，類似一臺能夠記錄萬里以外的地震的錯綜復(fù)雜的儀器。(取自譯文)

這一段話莫名想起《面紗》中的一段:

She did not know why she thought suddenly of an instrument she had been shown in Hong-Kong upon which a needle oscillated a little and she had been told that this represented an earthquake a thousand miles away in which perhaps a thousand persons had lost their lives. (女主在猶豫是否撒謊的一段，一種答案就是一種內(nèi)心不同的回應(yīng)，有時(shí)也成就了不同人生的走向。)

It was lonely for a day or so until one morning some man, more recently arrived than I, stopped me on the road.

“How do you get to West Egg village?”(East Egg與West Egg隔著一條海灣，新舊勢力的對比) he asked helplessly.

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.

這一段很有同感。Nick Carraway(the narrator)先介紹了家里的背景以及一戰(zhàn)后準(zhǔn)備去東部闖蕩一番，做證券(側(cè)面寫出來了當(dāng)時(shí)的背景)。合租的房子勉強(qiáng)湊合最終因?qū)Ψ秸{(diào)離，計(jì)劃破產(chǎn)。

也因此有了鄉(xiāng)下的這塊租處，有了后續(xù)Daisy(Nick的遠(yuǎn)房表親)和Gatsby的交集地。莫名想起forshadowing(鋪墊)這個詞。

這一段在于一個外地人問外地人方向，莫名給了后者當(dāng)?shù)鼐用竦臍w屬感。

...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.

故事正式進(jìn)入開始，主要人物與故事的開端。這本書其實(shí)很有意思，書名為偉大的蓋茨比，卻讓人覺得悲涼。主人公是蓋茨比，卻在前幾章多存在于別人的認(rèn)知中。

Her husband, among various physical accomplishments(體育成就), had been one of the most powerful ends (橄欖球中的邊鋒)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 twenty-one that everything afterward savors of anti-climax.(21歲走上了人生巔峰，savor of有點(diǎn)下坡路不好的成分)

His family were enormously wealthy — even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach(blame) — but now he’d left Chicago and come 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 (age)was wealthy enough to do that.

這一段是Daisy的丈夫Tom的背景介紹，總有人說投胎是個技術(shù)活。Tom Buchanans愛運(yùn)動，有錢。也因此后文中出現(xiàn)了各種花草事件以及性格說一不二的專暴就有了凸顯的條件。

Their house was even more elaborate than I expected, a cheerful red-and-white Georgian Colonial mansion(見到mansion就可以確定是大豪宅，喬治殖民時(shí)代風(fēng)格，1714-1830),? overlooking the bay.

The lawn started at the beach and ran toward the front door for a quarter of a mile, jumping over sun-dials(日晷) and brick walks and burning gardens — finally when it reached the house drifting up the side in bright vines(爬山虎一類) as though(as if) from the momentum of its run.(動詞的幾處作用很細(xì)節(jié))

The front was broken by a line of French windows(落地窗，常見詞匯), glowing now with reflected gold and wide open to the warm windy afternnoon, and Tom Buchanan in riding clothes was standing with his legs apart (帶有個人特征的狀態(tài))on the front porch.

Tom和Daisy的家是本書特別喜歡的著墨之一，尤其是中間部分以草坪一路跑過的各種地方，非常美的描寫。特意沒有去看翻譯，反復(fù)自己讀會更有一種場景感。

這一段開頭部分a cheerful red-and-white來修飾這棟房子，也有說法cheerful以及紅白明亮的色彩來和Tom與Daisy的婚姻形成比照和掩飾。

A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling, (圖案猶如婚禮蛋糕糖霜上的圖案的天花板) and then rippled(漣漪) over the wine-colored rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea.

一陣輕風(fēng)吹過屋里，把窗簾從一頭吹進(jìn)來，又從另一頭吹出去，好像一面面白旗，吹向天花板上糖花結(jié)婚蛋糕似的裝飾，然后輕輕拂過絳色地毯，留下一陣陰影有如風(fēng)吹海面。(摘自巫寧坤版譯文)

這一段真的太有代入感，忽明忽暗破碎明亮的微風(fēng)有一種恬靜。

The only completely stationary (standstill) object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed (與boy發(fā)音相同)up as though upon an anchored balloon.

They were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering(billowing) as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house. I must have stood for a few moments listening to the whip and snap of the curtains and the groan of a picture on the wall. Then there was a boom as Tom Buchanan shut the rear windows and the caught wind (余風(fēng))died out about the room, and the curtains and the rugs and the two young women ballooned slowly to the floor.

初見Daisy與(Jordan)Baker，因?yàn)镈aisy開始介紹時(shí)沒有將first name說清楚。

這一段是第一章反復(fù)讀的段落，電影中也有所呈現(xiàn)。飄蕩的窗簾，白裙子，懶洋洋卻優(yōu)雅的兩個女子如同乘坐著熱氣球，微風(fēng)吹進(jìn)窗簾聲，墻上畫的咯吱聲。隨著Tom哐得關(guān)窗，截下的余風(fēng)就將飄蕩在半空的兩個人靜靜送回了地面。太細(xì)膩。

第一章第一部分暫時(shí)到這，有空往后出。不一定完全按劇情或者喜好走，做些筆記也是想讓自己盡快將這本書重新系統(tǒng)過一遍。不能為了筆記而筆記，這樣太耽誤時(shí)間精力反而本末倒置了。

最近快速讀完了Wonder《奇跡男孩》，挺失望的一本書，特別碎和多，語言相當(dāng)簡單，高中就可以入手。不大推薦，電影不錯。

另:納尼亞的精講扔到爪哇島了，很慚愧，但已經(jīng)將The Horse and His Boy《能言馬與男孩》讀完了，還挺有意思。發(fā)現(xiàn)納尼亞系列還挺好看的。

推薦電影《一個叫歐維的男人》。

以上。