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"It was a strange coincidence," I said.
“真是奇怪的巧合，”我说。
"But it wasn't a coincidence at all."
“但这根本不是巧合。”
"Why not?"
“为什么不？”
"Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay."
“盖茨比买下那幢房子，就是因为黛西住在海湾对面。”
Then it had not been merely the stars to which he had aspired on that June night.
那么，在那个六月的夜晚，他所向往的就不仅仅是那些星星了。
He came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor.
他在我的心里的形象变得鲜活起来，不再只是个任意挥霍的暴发户。
"He wants to know--" continued Jordan "--if you'll invite Daisy to your house some afternoon and then let him come over."
“他想知道——”乔丹继续说，“你是否愿意邀请黛西某个下午到你家来，然后让他过去做客。”
The modesty of the demand shook me.
这种谦虚的要求使我感到震惊。
He had waited five years and bought a mansion
他等了五年，买了一栋大厦，
where he dispensed starlight to casual moths so that he could"come over" some afternoon to a stranger's garden.
让星光洒在随意来去的飞蛾身上，只为了某个下午能“过来”拜访一个陌生人的花园。
"Did I have to know all this before he could ask such a little thing?"
“在他拜托我这点小事之前，我必须知道所有这些吗？”
"He's afraid. He's waited so long. He thought you might be offended.
“他在害怕。他等了这么久。他认为你可能会生气。
You see he's a regular tough underneath it all."
尽管如此，他其实骨子里是个硬汉。”
Something worried me.
但我也有自己担心的事情。
"Why didn't he ask you to arrange a meeting?"
“他为什么不叫你安排一次会面呢？”
"He wants her to see his house," she explained. "And your house is rightnext door."
“他想让她看看他的房子，”她解释道。“你家就在隔壁。”
"Oh!"
“噢！”
"I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties,some night," went on Jordan,
“我想他大概是希望她哪天晚上会去参加他的晚会，”乔丹接着说，
"but she never did. Then he began asking people casually if they knew her, and I was the first one he found.
但她从来没有来过。然后他开始四处打听人们是否认识她，而我是他找到的第一个认识黛西的人。
It was that night he sent for me at his dance, and you should have heard the elaborate way he worked up to it.
就是那天晚上，他在舞会上派人叫我过去，可惜你没听到他是怎么拐弯抹角地铺垫的。
Of course, I immediately suggested a luncheon in New York--
当然，我马上提议在纽约吃午饭——
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.'
不料他急得像是发疯：“‘我不想做任何不合适的事！’”他不停地说。‘我就想在隔壁见她。’
"When I said you were a particular friend of Tom's he started to abandon the whole idea.
“当我说你是汤姆的一个好朋友时，他开始放弃这个想法。
He doesn't know very much about Tom,
他不太了解汤姆，
though he says he's read a Chicago paper for years just on the chance of catching a glimpse of Daisy's name."
不过他说他读了几年芝加哥的报纸，只是为了有机会看到黛西的名字。”
