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I walked out the back way--just as Gatsby had when he had made his nervous circuit of the house half an hour before--
我从后门走了出去——就像半小时前的盖茨比一样紧张地在房子里兜了一圈，
and ran for a huge black knotted tree whose massed leaves made a fabric against the rain.
跑向一棵黑色大树。这棵树盘根错节，密集的叶子就像一块织物，能够用来挡雨。
Once more it was pouring and my irregular lawn, well-shaved by Gatsby's gardener,
外面又下起了倾盆大雨，我那不规则的草坪被盖茨比的园丁修剪得整整齐齐，
abounded in small muddy swamps and prehistoric marshes.
现在上面满是雨后泥泞的小沼泽。
There was nothing to look at from under the tree except Gatsby's enormous house,
从树下望出去，除了盖茨比那幢大房子以外，再没有什么可看的了。
so I stared at it, like Kant at his church steeple, for half an hour.
所以我盯着它看了半个小时，就像康德盯着他的教堂尖塔一样。
A brewer had built it early in the "period"craze, a decade before,
这座房子是十年前一家啤酒制造商在“时代”狂热时期建造的，
and there was a story that he'd agreed to pay five years' taxes on all the neighboring cottages
还有人说，他同意为附近所有的小房子支付5年的税，
if the owners would have their roofs thatched with straw.
如果屋主愿意在屋顶铺一层稻草。
Perhaps their refusal took the heart out of his plan to Found a Family--he went into an immediate decline.
也许他们的拒绝使他失去了“成家”的勇气——他的事业立即衰落了。
His children sold his house with the black wreath still on the door.
他的孩子们卖掉了房子，门上还挂着黑色的花环。
Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry.
美国人虽然愿意当农奴，但始终不愿当乡下人。
