‘I didn’t know what you’d want, Mr. Gatsby——‘
‘Gatz is my name.’
‘—Mr. Gatz. I thought you might want to take the body west.’
He shook his head.
‘Jimmy always liked it better down East. He rose up to his position in the East. Were you a friend of my boy’s, Mr.—?’ ‘We were close friends.’
‘He had a big future before him, you know. He was only a young man but he had a lot of brain power here.’
“我当时不知道您要怎么办，盖茨比先生⋯⋯”
“我姓盖兹。”
“盖兹先生，我以为您也许要把遗体运到西部去。”
他摇了摇头。
“杰米一向喜欢待在东部。他是在东部上升到他这个地位的。你是我孩子的朋友吗，先生?” “我们是很知己的朋友。”
“他是大有前程的，你知道。他只是个年轻人，但是他在这个地方很有能耐。”
He touched his head impressively and I nodded.
‘If he’d of lived he’d of been a great man. A man like James J. Hill. He’d of helped build up the country.’
‘That’s true,’ I said, uncomfortably.
He fumbled at the embroidered coverlet, trying to take it from the bed, and lay down stiffly—was instantly asleep. That night an obviously frightened person called up and demanded to know who I was before he would give his name.
他郑重其事地用手碰碰脑袋，我也点了点头。 “假使他活下去的话，他会成为一个大人物的，像詹姆斯·J·希尔①那样的人，他会帮助建设国家的。”
“确实是那样，”我局促不安地说。
他笨手笨脚地把绣花被单扯来扯去，想把它从床上拉下来，接着就硬邦邦地躺下去——立刻就睡着了。那天晚上一个显然害怕的人打电话来，一定要先知道我是谁才肯报他自己的姓名。
① 詹姆斯·J·希尔(james.J.Hill，1838-l916)，美国铁路大王。
‘This is Mr. Carraway,’ I said.
‘Oh—’ He sounded relieved. ‘This is Klipspringer.’
I was relieved too for that seemed to promise another friend at Gatsby’s grave. I didn’t want it to be in the papers and draw a sightseeing crowd so I’d been calling up a few people myself. They were hard to find.
“我是卡罗威一”我说。 “哦!”他似乎感到宽慰，“我是克利普斯普林格。”我也感到宽慰，因为这一来盖茨比的墓前可能会多一个朋友了。我不愿意登报，引来一大堆看热闹的人，所以我就自己打电话通知了几个人。他们可真难找到。
‘The funeral’s tomorrow,’ I said. ‘Three o’clock, here at the house. I wish you’d tell anybody who’d be interested.’
‘Oh, I will,’ he broke out hastily. ‘Of course I’m not likely to see anybody, but if I do.’
His tone made me suspicious.
‘Of course you’ll be there yourself.’
‘Well, I’ll certainly try. What I called up about is——‘ ‘Wait a minute,’ I interrupted. ‘How about saying you’ll come?’
“明天出殡，”我说，“下午三点，就在此地家里。我希望你转告凡是有意参加的人。”
“哦，一定，”他忙说，“当然啦，我不大可能见到什么人，但是如果我碰到的活。”
他的语气使我起了疑心。
“你自己当然是要来的。”
“呃，找一定想法子来。我打电话来是要问⋯⋯”“等等，”我打断了他的活，“先说你一定来怎么样?”
‘Well, the fact is—the truth of the matter is that I’m staying with some people up here in Greenwich and they rather expect me to be with them tomorrow. In fact there’s a sort of picnic or something. Of course I’ll do my very best to get away.’
I ejaculated an unrestrained ‘Huh!’ and he must have heard me for he went on nervously:
“呃，事实是⋯⋯实际情况是这样的，我目前待在格林威治这里朋友家里，人家指望我明大和他们一起玩。事实上，明天要去野餐什么的。当然我走得开一定来。”
我忍不住叫了一声“哼”！他也一定听到了，因为他很紧张地往下说:
‘What I called up about was a pair of shoes I left there. I wonder if it’d be too much trouble to have the butler send them on. You see they’re tennis shoes and I’m sort of helpless without them. My address is care of B. F.——‘
I didn’t hear the rest of the name because I hung up the receiver.
“我打电话来是为了我留在那里的一双鞋。不知道能不能麻烦你让男管家给我寄来，你知道，那是双网球鞋，我离了它简直没办法。我的地址是B·F ... ... ”
我没听他说完那个名字就把话筒挂上了。
After that I felt a certain shame for Gatsby—one gentleman to whom I telephoned implied that he had got what he deserved. However, that was my fault, for he was one of those who used to sneer most bitterly at Gatsby on the courage of Gatsby’s liquor and I should have known better than to call him.
在那以后我为盖茨比感到羞愧——还有一个我打电话去找的人竟然表示他是死有应得的。不过，这是我的过错，因为他是那些当初喝足了盖茨比的酒就大骂盖茨比的客人中的一个，我本来就不应该打电话给他的。
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