总是有不经意的事情打断计划。

第三章盖茨比家举行party的场景很有看头。

There was music from my neighbor’s house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars. (悄声细语，香槟髻发，群星闪烁，画面太美可惜客人让人不喜。) At high tide(涨潮) in the afternoon I watched his guests diving from the tower of his raft,or taking the sun on the hot sand of his beach while his two motor-boats slit the waters of the Sound, drawing aquaplanes over cataracts of foam.(同时他的两艘小汽艇破浪前进，拖着滑水板驶过翻腾的浪花。--出自译文)

开头就做了介绍，相当有内涵。男男女女往来宴会如同飞蛾扑火。

On buffet(自助餐) tables, garnished(to add sth. to food) with glistening hors-d’oeuvre(冷盘，开胃菜), spiced baked hams crowded against salads of harlequin designs (harlequin指丑角，这里指菜式多五花八门) and pastry pigs and turkeys bewitched to a dark gold. In the main hall a bar with a real brass rail was set up, and stocked with gins (这款酒太文学作品中太常见了)and liquors and with cordials(果汁，果酒，adj.表热情的，常见词汇) so long forgotten that most of his female guests were too young to know one from another.

好奢侈的招待，有些饿了。

Laughter is easier minute by minute, spilled with prodigality(extravagant)(笑声越来越多，倾溢出来), tipped out at a cheerful word. The groups change more swiftly, swell with new arrivals, dissolve and form in the same breath(太精彩); already there are wanderers, confident girls who weave here and there(在人群中迂回穿梭) among the stouter and more stable, become for a sharp, joyous moment the centre of a group, and then, excited with triumph, glide on through the sea-changeof faces and voicesand color (替代人群，想起王尔德“追求各种裙子，各种花边，各种样式”) under the constantly changing light.

宴会开始了，灯光下乐队开始演奏。花园里鸡尾酒托盘不停穿梭，拿起或放下酒杯的人们彼此或热情或冷淡的交谈寒暄，这转眼即忘的介绍和相识是整个盛夏的味道。

I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby’s house I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited. People were not invited — they went there. They got into automobiles which bore them out to Long Island, and somehow they ended up at Gatsby’s door. Once there they were introduced by somebody who knew Gatsby, and after that they conducted themselves according to the rules of behavior associated with amusement parks(游乐园). Sometimes they came and went without having met Gatsby at all, came for the party with a simplicity of heart that was its own ticket of admission.(一颗参加宴会的赤诚的心就是一张入场券)

这一段没什么难点，只是觉得很讽刺。读起来挺有意思。

Instead of rambling(talking/walking a lot), this party had preserved a dignified homogeneity, and assumed to itself the function of representing the staid(serious) nobility of the country-side — East Egg condescending to West Egg, and carefully on guard against its spectroscopic gayety.

在宴会上Nick百无聊赖，突然发现熟悉的陌生人-Jordan，并随之去了东卵一圈人的角落。

也看出两个圈子的人明显不同。他们整齐划一，正襟危坐，自成一体。俨然乡村贵族的代表，屈尊降临西卵，小心提防此处灯红酒绿的快乐。说实话，有些看不上的意味。在后续Daisy与Tom参加聚会的时候就有提到，一个阶层对另一个往上攀爬的阶层的鄙视---认为一切是徒劳，哪怕不知从哪里搞来富可敌国的财富。

There was dancing now on the canvas(篷布) in the garden; old men pushing young girls backward in eternal graceless(这两个词......) circles, superior couples holding each other tortuously(扭曲地), fashionably, and keeping in the corners — and a great number of single girls dancing individualistically (自己跳的单人舞也很带劲) or relieving the orchestra for a moment of the burden of the banjo or the traps.

两人从书房出来看到的场景，脑海中突然飘过“群魔乱舞”。

By midnight the hilarity(great merriment) had increased(↑). A celebrated tenor (男高音，对应soprano女高音) had sung in Italian, and a notorious (infamous) contralto(女低音) had sung in jazz, and between the numbers people were doing “stunts.”(表演绝技) all over the garden, while happy, vacuous bursts of laughter rose toward the summer sky. (这阵阵笑声多空洞，这欢乐多腐朽，如同一波波海浪打过，卷着垃圾的浮沫)

The moon had risen higher, and floating in the Sound(the Bay) was a triangle of silver scales, trembling a little to the stiff, tinny drip of the banjoes (班卓琴)on the lawn.

海湾里飘着一副三角形的银色天秤(天秤座)，随着草坪上班卓琴铿锵的琴声微微颤动。(选自巫宁坤老师的译文，侵删)

最后一段实在太过喜欢，自己翻总觉得缺些味道，引用了译文。

He smiled understandingly (善解人意)— much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life.

It faced — or seemed to face — the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible (cannot resist) prejudice in your favor. (全身心倾注在你身上，不可抵御的偏爱。)

It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.

盖茨比经典的笑。此处描写精妙极了，这样的一种笑容似乎穿透灵魂又似乎什么也不是。第六章中写到盖茨比本人就知道他的笑容招人喜欢。

Fifty feet from the door a dozen headlights illuminated a bizarre and tumultuous(full of disorder) scene. In the ditch(沟渠) beside the road, right side up(右边翘起，左边趴沟), but violently shorn(shear) of one wheel, rested a new coupe(sports car) which had left Gatsby’s drive not two minutes before.

The sharp jut of a wall (墙突出的一块) accounted for(explain) the detachment of the wheel, which was now getting considerable attention from half a dozen curious chauffeurs. However, as they had left their cars blocking the road, a harsh, discordant din from those in the rear had been audible for some time, and added to the already violent confusion of the scene.

掉车轮子这一段非常有意思。一辆车撞沟里了，后面的司机又都好奇，路堵死了，喇叭声滴滴滴，一片混乱。

第三章还有几页，不过不再出本章笔记，不然照这种磨叽劲很多书都甭想看了。有些疲倦。