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When I came back from the East last autumn
去年秋天我从东部回来的时候，
I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever;
我希望这个世界永远都是整齐划一的，并且永远在道德上保持一种正直的姿态。
I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart.
我不想再参与放浪形骸的游乐，也不想要偶尔窥探人内心深处的特权了。
Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction.
但却只有一个人是例外的，盖茨比——就是把他的名字赋予本书的那个人，只有他除外。
Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn.
盖茨比，他代表我所真心鄙夷的一切。
If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures,
假如人的品格是一系列连续不断的成功的姿态，
then there was something gorgeous about him,
那么这个人身上就有一种瑰丽的异彩，
some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life,
他对于人生的希冀具有一种高度的敏感，
as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away.
他就像一台能够记录万里以外的地震的错综复杂的仪器。
This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability
这种敏感和被美其名曰“创造性气质”的
which is dignified under the name of the “creative temperament.”
那种软绵绵的感受性截然不同。
--it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness
--它是一种异乎寻常的永葆希望的天赋，一种富于浪漫色彩的敏捷，
such as I have never found in any other person
这是我在别人身上从未发现过的，
and which it is not likely I shall ever find again.
也是我今后不大可能会再发现的。
No -- Gatsby turned out all right at the end;
不——盖茨比本人到头来倒是无可厚非的，
it is what preyed on Gatsby,
我真正在意的是那些吞噬盖茨比心灵的东西，
what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams
是在他的幻梦消逝后腾起的污浊灰尘。
that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.
令我对人们短暂的悲哀和片刻的欢欣暂时丧失了兴趣。
My family have been prominent, well-to-do people in this Middle Western city for three generations.
我家三代以来都是这个中西部城市中家道殷实的体面人物。
The Carraways are something of a clan,
姓卡罗威的也可算是个世家，
and we have a tradition that we're descended from the Dukes of Buccleuch,
家里人称我们是布克娄奇公爵的后裔，
but the actual founder of my line was my grandfather's brother, who came here in fifty-one,
但是我们家族的实际创始人其实是我祖父的哥哥。他在一八五一年来到这里，
sent a substitute to the Civil War,
找了个替身去参加南北战争，
and started the wholesale hardware business that my father carries on to-day.
然后开始做起五金批发生意，也就是我父亲今天还在经营的买卖。
I never saw this great-uncle, but I'm supposed to look like him--
我从未见过这位伯祖父，但是据说我长得像他，
with special reference to the rather hard-boiled painting that hangs in father's office.
尤其是有挂在父亲办公室里的那幅铁板面孔的画像为证。
