不知不觉到了第四章。
On Sunday morning while church bells rang in the villages along shore, the world and its mistress(men and young girls) returned to Gatsby’s house and twinkled hilariously on his lawn.(寻欢作乐)
开章第一段有些深意。星期日属于做礼拜的日子，但在盖茨比家中却明显不同。
Once I wrote down on the empty spaces(the blank space, margin) of a time-table the names of those who came to Gatsby’s house that summer. It is an old time-table now, disintegrating (使破裂) at its folds, and headed (printed) “This schedule in effect July 5th, 1922.” But I can still read the gray names(暗淡的名字，字迹淡了), and they will give you a better impression than my generalities (概括性的话)of those who accepted Gatsby’s hospitality and paid him the subtle tribute (作为回报) of knowing nothing whatever about him.
这些很多不请自来的客人一边十分不客气地对其评头论足，一边十分不客气地吃吃喝喝。the gray names在此处个人认为不仅仅是字迹随着时间淡了，这些人也随着时间黯淡了，尤其很多人的命运走向并不那么美好。后面大篇幅介绍的人物略无趣，就此略过不提。
He looked at me sideways(sideways此处 adv.他瞟了我两眼) — and I knew why Jordan Baker had believed he was lying. He hurried the phrase “educated at Oxford,” or swallowed it, or choked on it, as though it had bothered him before. And with this doubt, his whole statement fell to pieces, and I wondered if there wasn’t something a little sinister about him, after all.
Gatsby邀请Nick去吃饭。这一段挺有意思。盖茨比说自己牛津大学毕业，可惜基本没人买账。Jordan Baker (打高尔夫，Daisy的闺蜜)说他说谎，虽然Jordan也是谎言不断;Tom更是压根不信(第七章中说Gatsby穿了一套粉西装，就不可能是牛津毕业)。唯一信的或许是Mr. Wolfsheim，但偏偏将牛津说成牛筋(He’s an Oggsford man.)。
Then it was all true. I saw the skins of tigers flaming in his palace on the Grand Canal(大运河) ; I saw him opening a chest of rubies to ease, with their crimson-lighted depths, the gnawings of his broken heart.
Nick看到Gatsby的勋章，照片顿时觉得迷幻的虚雾散去，他的故事仿佛真实了起来。想起第六章提到Nick的reached the point of believing，说实在的什么是真？什么是假？或许心中的悲伤和抹了一层又一层的美好是真的，可偏偏那些向往是假的。
这一段与Gatsby之前描述其家境和牛津毕业时的一段想法对应。
With an effort I managed to restrain my incredulous laughter. The very phrases were worn so threadbare that they evoked no image except that of a turbaned “character.” leaking sawdust at every pore as he pursued a tiger through the Bois de Boulogne(巴黎郊外的波洛涅公园).
这里指Nick压根就不信。所以才说一个玩具木偶一边追老虎一边噗噗簌簌掉锯末，后面似乎讲述真实起来，所以才有了虎皮在宫殿里闪闪发光。
The officer looked at Daisy while she was speaking, in a way that every young girl wants to be looked at sometime, and because it seemed romantic to me I have remembered the incident ever since. His name was Jay Gatsby, and I didn’t lay eyes on him again for over four years — even after I’d met him on Long Island I didn’t realize it was the same man.
在Jorden的叙述中，Daisy与Gatsby的曾经。
I was bridesmaid(Jorden是伴娘，依旧是Jorden的回忆). I came into her room half an hour before the bridal dinner, and found her lying on her bed as lovely as the June night in her flowered dress — and as drunk as a monkey. she had a bottle of Sauterne in one hand and a letter in the other.
“Here, deares(即dearest)’.” She groped around in a waste-basket she had with her on the bed and pulled out the string of pearls(前文提起，valued at 350,000dollars). “Take ’em down-stairs and give ’em back to whoever they belong to. Tell ’em all Daisy’s change’ her mine(结婚前唯一一次喝醉，mine即mind). Say: ‘Daisy’s change’ her mine!’.”
She began to cry — she cried and cried. I rushed out and found her mother’s maid, and we locked the door and got her into a cold bath. She wouldn’t let go of the letter. She took it into the tub with her and squeezed it up into a wet ball, and only let me leave it in the soap-dish when she saw that it was coming to pieces like snow.(电影中的精彩场面)
这一段第一次读得时候颇为动人。Daisy与Gatsy别离后不能偷偷跑去送别，因赌气与不同人交往，甚至有一次即成的婚约，最终嫁给了Tom Buchanan.只可惜轰动全城的婚礼，价值35万的礼物在当时Daisy的最心底处终究抵不过Gatsby.
每每回想起就觉得唏嘘。五年的时光和不幸的婚姻如同一辈子的长河，让一个美好如六月夜晚的姑娘变成了动听的话语里都是金钱的声音的笼中鸟。
“But it wasn’t a coincidence at all.”
“Why not?”
“Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay.”
Then it had not been merely the stars to which (定从，修饰the stars) he had aspired /on that June night. He came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor.
aspire to : 追求
一切都不是命运的安排，而是苦苦寻觅的刻意为之。盖茨比在尼克的心中不再是一个若隐若现，随时消散在灯火辉煌中的影子。
“He wants to know,” continued Jordan, “if you’ll invite Daisy to your house some afternoon and then let him come over.”
The modesty of the demand shook me. He had waited five years and bought a mansion where he dispensed starlight to casual moths — so that he could “come over.” some afternoon to a stranger’s garden.
读到此处，无限伤感。
第四章结束。
