PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGÔN

HA NOI OPEN UNIVERSITY
FACULT OF ENGLISH
--------------------

ASSIGNMENT ON DISCOURSE ON ANALYSIS

HA NOI -2021
1


HA NOI OPEN UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF ENGLISH
------------------

ASSIGNMENT ON DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Họ và tên người viết: Tạ Thị Diệu Linh
Ngày tháng năm sinh: 24/10/2000
Mã SV: 18A71010263
Lớp: K25A2
Khoá học: 2018-2022

HA NOI -2021

2


Contents
ENGLISH TEXT .......................................................................................................................... 4
A. WRITTEN LANGUAGE ........................................................................................................ 10
I. Grammar: ............................................................................................................................ 10

II. Lexical Density: .................................................................................................................. 11
B. COHESIVE DEVICES .......................................................................................................... 12
I. Grammatical cohesive devices ............................................................................................ 12
1. Reference ......................................................................................................................... 12
1.1. Personal reference: ..................................................................................................... 12
1.2. Demonstrative reference: ........................................................................................... 14
1.3. Comparative reference ............................................................................................... 16
2. Substitution...................................................................................................................... 16
3. Ellipsis .............................................................................................................................. 16
4. Conjunction ..................................................................................................................... 17
4.1. Adversity .................................................................................................................... 17
4.2. Addition...................................................................................................................... 17
4.3. Causality ..................................................................................................................... 17
4.4. Temporal .................................................................................................................... 17
II. Lexical cohesive devices ....................................................................................................... 17
1.Reiteration ......................................................................................................................... 17
1.1.

Repetition: ............................................................................................................... 18

1.2.

Synonymy ............................................................................................................... 18

1.3.

Antonymy: .............................................................................................................. 19

1.4.

Superordinate and Meronymy................................................................................. 19

1.5.

General words: ........................................................................................................ 20

2. Collocations ......................................................................................................................... 20
C. ENGLISH – VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION ...................................................... 20
REFERENCE .................................................................................................................. 28

3


ENGLISH TEXT
1

There was music from my neighbor’s house through the summer nights. In his blue

2

gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the

3

cham-pagne and the stars. At high tide in the afternoon, I watched his guests diving

4

from the tower of his raft or taking the sun on the hot sand of his beach while his

5

two motorboats slit the waters of the Sound, drawing aquaplanes over cataracts of

6

foam. On weekends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from

7

the city, between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station

8

wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains. And on Mondays eight

9

servants including an extra gardener toiled all day with mops and scrubbing brushes

10

and hammers and garden-shears, repairing the ravages of the night before.

11
12

Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from a fruiterer in New

13

York every Monday these same oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid

14

of pulpless halves. There was a machine in the kitchen which could extract the juice

15

of two hundred oranges in half an hour, if a little button was pressed two hundred

16

times by a butler’s thumb.

17
18

At least once a fortnight a corps of caterers came down with several hundred feet

19

of canvas and enough colored lights to make a Christmas tree of Gatsby’s enormous

20

garden. On buffet tables, garnished with glistening hors d’oeuvre, spiced baked hams

21

crowded against salads of harlequin designs and pastry pigs and turkeys bewitched

22

to a dark gold. In the main hall a bar with a real brass rail was set up, and stocked

23

with gins and liquors and with cordials so long forgotten that most of his female

24

guests were too young to know one from another.
4


25
26

By seven o’clock the orchestra has arrived—no thin five- piece affair but a whole

27

pitful of oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos

28

and low and high drums. The last swimmers have come in from the beach now and

29

are dressing upstairs; the cars from New York are parked five deep in the drive, and

30

already the halls and salons and verandas are gaudy with primary colors and hair

31

shorn in strange new ways and shawls beyond the dreams of Castile. The bar is in

32

full swing and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside until the air

33

is alive with chatter and laughter and casual innuendo and introductions forgotten

34

on the spot and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other’s

35

names.

36
37

The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun and now the

38

orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music and the opera of voices pitches a key

39

higher. Laughter is easier, minute by minute, spilled with prodigality, tipped out at

40

a cheerful word. The groups change more swiftly, swell with new arrivals, dissolve

41

and form in the same breath already there are wanderers, confident girls who weave

42

here and there among the stouter and more stable, become for a sharp, joyous

43

moment the center of a group and then excited with triumph glide on through the

44

sea- change of faces and voices and color under the constantly changing light.

45
46

Suddenly one of these gypsies in trembling opal, seizes a cocktail out of the air,

47

dumps it down for courage and moving her hands like Frisco dances out alone on

48

the canvas platform. A momentary hush; the orchestra leader varies his rhythm

49

obligingly for her and there is a burst of chatter as the erroneous news goes around

50

that she is Gilda Gray’s understudy from the ‘Follies.’ The party has begun.

51
5


52

I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby’s house I was one of the few

53

guests who had been invited. People were not invited they went there. They got into

54

automobiles which bore them out to Long Island and some- how they ended up at

55

Gatsby’s door. Once there they were introduced by somebody who knew Gatsby and

56

after that they conducted themselves according to the rules of be- havior associated

57

with amusement parks. Sometimes they came and went without having met Gatsby

58

at all, came for the party with a simplicity of heart that was its own ticket of

59

admission.

60
61

I had been actually invited. A chauffeur in a uniform of robin’s egg blue crossed

62

my lawn early that Saturday morning with a surprisingly formal note from his

63

employer—the honor would be entirely Gatsby’s, it said, if I would attend his ‘little

64

party’ that night. He had seen me several times and had intended to call on me long

65

before, but a peculiar combination of circumstances had prevented it signed Jay

66

Gatsby in a majestic hand.

67
68

Dressed up in white flannels I went over to his lawn a little after seven and

69

wandered around rather ill-at-ease among swirls and eddies of people I didn’t know

70

though here and there was a face I had noticed on the commuting train. I was

71

immediately struck by the number of young Englishmen dotted about; all well

72

dressed, all looking a little hungry and all talking in low earnest voices to solid and

73

prosperous Americans. I was sure that they were selling something: bonds or

74

insurance or automobiles. They were, at least, agonizingly aware of the easy money

75

in the vicinity and convinced that it was theirs for a few words in the right key.

76
77

As soon as I arrived I made an attempt to find my host but the two or three people

78

of whom I asked his where- abouts stared at me in such an amazed way and denied
6


79

so vehemently any knowledge of his movements that I slunk off in the direction of

80

the cocktail table the only place in the garden where a single man could linger

81

without looking purposeless and alone.

82
83

I was on my way to get roaring drunk from sheer embarrassment when Jordan

84

Baker came out of the house and stood at the head of the marble steps, leaning a

85

little back- ward and looking with contemptuous interest down into the garden.

86
87
88
89
90
91
92

Welcome or not, I found it necessary to attach myself to someone before I should
begin to address cordial remarks to the passers by.
‘Hello!’ I roared, advancing toward her. My voice seemed unnaturally loud across
the garden.
‘I thought you might be here,’ she responded absently as I came up. ‘I remembered
you lived next door to ‘

93

She held my hand impersonally, as a promise that she’d take care of me in a

94

minute, and gave ear to two girls in twin yellow dresses who stopped at the foot of

95

the steps.

96
97

98
99

‘Hello!’ they cried together. ‘Sorry you didn’t win.’
That was for the golf tournament. She had lost in the finals the week before.
‘You don’t know who we are,’ said one of the girls in yellow, ‘but we met you
here about a month ago.’

100

‘You’ve dyed your hair since then,’ remarked Jordan, and I started but the girls

101

had moved casually on and her remark was addressed to the premature moon,

102

produced like the supper, no doubt, out of a caterer’s basket. With Jordan’s slender

103

golden arm resting in mine we descended the steps and sauntered about the garden.

104

A tray of cocktails floated at us through the twilight and we sat down at a table with

105

the two girls in yellow and three men, each one introduced to us as Mr. Mumble.
7


106

‘Do you come to these parties often?’ inquired Jordan of the girl beside her.

107

‘The last one was the one I met you at,’ answered the girl, in an alert, confident

108

voice. She turned to her companion: ‘Wasn’t it for you, Lucille?’

109

It was for Lucille, too.

110

‘I like to come,’ Lucille said. ‘I never care what I do, so I always have a good

111

time. When I was here last I tore my gown on a chair, and he asked me my name

112

and address inside of a week I got a package from Croirier’s with a new evening

113

gown in it.’

114

‘Did you keep it?’ asked Jordan.

115

‘Sure I did. I was going to wear it tonight, but it was too big in the bust and had

116

to be altered. It was gas blue with lavender beads. Two hundred and sixty-five

117

dollars.’

118
119

‘There’s something funny about a fellow that’ll do a thing like that,’ said the other
girl eagerly.

120

“He doesn’t want any trouble with anybody.’

121

‘Who doesn’t?’ I inquired. ‘Gatsby. Somebody told me‘

122

The two girls and Jordan leaned together confidentially. ‘Somebody told me they

123
124
125
126
127

thought he killed a man once.’
A thrill passed over all of us. The three Mr. Mumbles bent forward and listened
eagerly.
‘I don’t think it’s so much that ,’ argued Lucille skeptically; ‘it’s more that he was
a German spy during the war.’

128

One of the men nodded in confirmation.

129

‘I heard that from a man who knew all about him, grew up with him in Germany,’

130

he assured us positively.

131

‘Oh, no,’ said the first girl, ‘it couldn’t be that, because he was in the American

132

army during the war.’ As our credulity switched back to her she leaned forward with
8


133

enthusiasm. ‘You look at him sometimes when he thinks nobody’s looking at him.

134

I’ll bet he killed a man.’

135

She narrowed her eyes and shivered. Lucille shivered. We all turned and looked

136

around for Gatsby. It was testimoy to the romantic speculation he inspired that there

137

were whispers about him from those who found little that it was necessary to whisper

138

about in this world.
(The extract from “The Great Gatsby” written by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

9


A. WRITTEN LANGUAGE
I. Grammar:
• There is much information conveyed in one sentence:
Eg:
-

“The bar is in full swing and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden
outside until the air is alive with chatter and laughter and casual innuendo and
intro- ductions forgotten on the spot and enthusiastic meetings between women
who never knew each other’s names. “

-

“On weekends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from
the city, between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station
wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains.”

• Linguistically, text tends to consist of clauses that are internally complex:

E.g.:
-

“At high tide 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 motorboats slit the
waters of the Sound, drawing aquaplanes over cat- aracts of foam.”

-

“There was a machine in the kitchen which could extract the juice of two hundred
oranges in half an hour, if a little button was pressed two hundred times by a butler’s
thumb.”

-

“When I was here last I tore my gown on a chair, and he asked me my name and
address inside of a week I got a package from Croirier’s with a new evening gown
in it.’’

-

“As soon as I arrived I made an attempt to find my host but the two or three people
of whom I asked his where- abouts stared at me in such an amazed way and denied
so vehemently any knowledge of his movements that I slunk off in the direction of
the cocktail table—the only place in the garden where a single man could linger
without looking purposeless and alone.”

•

Heavily modified noun phrase:

E.g:
10


-

“I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby’s house I was one of the few guests
who had been invited”

-

“There was a machine in the kitchen which could extract the juice of two hundred
oranges in half an hour, if a little button was pressed two hundred times by a butler’s
thumb.”

•

An extensive set of markers exist to mark relationships between clauses:

E.g.:
-

“I was on my way to get roaring drunk from sheer embarrassment when Jordan
Baker came out of the house and stood at the head of the marble steps, leaning a
little back- ward and looking with contemptuous interest down into the garden.”

-

‘I never care what I do, so I always have a good time. When I was here last I tore

my gown on a chair, and he asked me my name and address inside of a week I got
a package from Croirier’s with a new evening gown in it.’

-

“You look at him sometimes when he thinks nobody’s looking at him. I’ll bet he
killed a man.”

II. Lexical Density:
-

Lexical words: 67,78%

-

Grammatical words: 58,11 %

E.g:
• In the sentence: “On weekends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing
parties to and from the city, between nine in the morning and long past
midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all
trains

 There is a lexical density of nineteen
• In the sentence: The last swimmers have come in from the beach and are
dressing upstairs; the cars from New York are parked five deep in the drive,
11


and already the halls and salons and verandas are gaudy with primary colors

and hair shorn in strange new ways and shawls beyond the dreams of Castile

 There is a lexical density of twenty-five.
• In the sentence: I was immediately struck by the number of young Englishmen
dotted about; all well dressed, all looking a little hungry and all talking in low
earnest voices to solid and prosperous Americans

 There is a lexical density of twenty -two
B. COHESIVE DEVICES
I. Grammatical cohesive devices
1. Reference
1.1. Personal reference:
• I(3,52,61,63,68,69,70,73,77,78,79,83,87,91,121 ):endophoric reference, anaphoric
reference, refer to the author
•

I (91): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to Jodan Baker

•

I (107): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to the girl beside Jodan
Baker

•

I (110,112,115,126): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to Lucielle

•

I (123) ): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to one of three men

•

My (1,62,83,89,93): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to the author

•

My (111): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to Lucielle

•

Me (64,93): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to the author

•

Me (122): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to one of two girls in
yellow

•

Myself (87): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to the author

•

You (96,98,107): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to the girl beside
Jodan Baker

•

You () endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to the author

•

You (100): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to two girls in yellow

•

You (108): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to Lucille
12


•

You (133): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to the author, John
Baker, Lucille and three men

•

He (61,107,117,120,125,127,128,130): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference,
refer to Gatsby

•

He (114): endophoric reference, cataphoric reference, refer to Gatsby

•

He (123): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to one of three men

•

His (1,3,4,6,7,13,23): endophoric reference, cataphoric reference, refer to Gatsby

•

His (62,63,68,78,79): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to Gatsby

•

His (48): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to orchestra leader

•

Him (129,133,137): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to Gatsby

•

She (50): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to one of these gypsies
in trembling opal

•

She (91,93,97): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to Jordan Baker

•

She (108): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to the girl beside
Jordan Baker

•

She (132,135): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to the first girl

•

Her (47,49): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to one of these
gypsies in trembling opal

•

Her (89,101): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to Jordan Baker

•

Her (108,132,135): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to the first girl

•

They (53,54,56,57): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to the guests
in Gatsby ‘s party

•

They (96): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to two girls in twin
yellow dresses

•

They (73,74): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to young
Englishmen

•

They (122): exophoric reference, refer to people

•

Them (53):

endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to the guests in

Gatsby ‘s party
13


•

Themselves (56): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to the guests in
Gatsby ‘s party

•

Theirs (75): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to the easy money

•

We (98): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to two girls in twin
yellow dresses

•

We (103,104): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to the author and
Jordan Baker

•

Us (130): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to two girls, Jodan
Baker, the author and three men

•

It (47): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to a cocktail

•

It (63,65): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to formal note

•

It (75): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to the easy money

•

It (87): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to “Welcome or not”

•

It (115,116): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to a new evening
gown

•

It (116): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to a package from
Croirier’s

•

It (120): endophoric reference, cataphoric reference, refer to “he was a German
spy during the war”

•

It (126): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to “I heard that from a
man who knew all about him, grew up with him in Germany”

•

It (131): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to “We all turned and
looked around for Gatsby”

•

It (137): endophoric reference, cataphoric reference, refer to “whisper about in this
world”

1.2. Demonstrative reference:
• That (58): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to a simplicity heart
•

That (64): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to Sartuday

•

That (97): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to “you didn’t win”
14


•

That (118): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to something funny

•

That (126): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to Gastby killed a man
once

•

These (13): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to oranges and lemons

•

These (46): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to confident girls

•

Here (42,70,91,99): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to the party

•

There (42): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to the party

•

Here (111): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to Gatsby ‘s house

•

Now (28): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to seven o’clock

•

Now (37): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to the earth lurches
away from the sun

•

Then (100): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to a month ago

•

The last swimmer(28): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to guest

•

The garden (32,80,85,90,103): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to
his blue garden

•

The groups (40): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to guest

•

The orchestra leader (48): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to
orchestra

•

The few guest (52): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to guest

•

The party (58): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to party

•

The cocktails (80): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to cocktails

•

The house (84): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to Gatsby ‘s
house

•

The finals (97): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to the golf
tourament

•

The girls (98): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to two girls in twin
yellow dresses

•

The two girls (105,122): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to two
girls in twin yellow dresses
15


•

The three Mr Mumbles (124): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to
three men

•

The man (126): endophoric reference, anaphoric reference, refer to three men

1.3. Comparative reference
• same (13,41): identity general comparison
•

such (78): similarity general comparision

•

another (24): different general comparison

•

other (34,118): different general comparison

•

more (40,42,126): numerative particular comparison

2. Substitution
•

In the main hall a bar with a real brass rail was set up, and stocked with gins and
liquors and with cordials so long forgotten that most of his female guests were too
young to know one from another.

 Nomianal substitution
•

Suddenly one of these gypsies in trembling opal, seizes a cocktail out of the air,
dumps it down for courage and moving her hands like Frisco dances out alone on
the canvas platform.

 Nomianal substitution
•

I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby’s house I was one of the few guests
who had been invited

 => Nomianal substitution
•

One of the men nodded in confirmation.

 Nomianal substitution
•

Sure I did

 Verbal substitution
3. Ellipsis
• I was sure that they were selling something: bonds or insurance or automobiles.
They were, at least, agonizingly aware of the easy money in the vicinity and
convinced that it was theirs for a few words in the right key.
16


 Verbal elippsis
• ‘I thought you might be here,’ she responded absently as I came up. ‘I remembered
you lived next door to ‘

 Norminal ellipsis
• ‘Sorry you didn’t win.’That was for the golf tournament. She had lost in the finals
the week before

 Norminal ellipsis
• ‘Do you come to these parties often?’ inquired Jordan of the girl beside her.
‘The last one was the one I met you at”

 Norminal ellipsis
• “He doesn’t want any trouble with anybody.’

‘Who doesn’t?’ I inquired. ‘Gatsby. Somebody told me’
 Verbal ellipsis
4. Conjunction
4.1. Adversity
• “but” (26,65,77,98,100,115): contrastive relations.
• at least (18,74): corrective relation
4.2. Addition
• “Or” (87): alternative, simple additive relations.
• “and” (8,37,38,49,54,55,70,106,111): additive, simple additive relations.
• “too” (109): additive, simple additive relations
4.3. Causality
• “So” (110)): general, causal relations.
• “Once (55): conditional relations, causal relations.
4.4. Temporal
• “After that “(55): sequential, simple temporal relation
II. Lexical cohesive devices
1. Reiteration
17


1.1.

Repetition:

•

men (2,71,105,128)

•

girl (2,41,94,98,100,105,106,107,119,122,131)

•

guest (3,24,53)

•

party (6,50,58,64,106)

•

garden (2,10,20,32,80,85,90,103)

•

night (1,10,52,64)

•

orange (12,13,15)

•

caterer (12,108)

•

light (19,37,44)

•

orchestra (26,38,48)

•

cocktail (32,38,46,80,104)

•

automobiles (54,74)

•

door (13,55,92)

•

yellow (8,38,94,105)

•

step (84,95,103)

•

gown (111,113)

•

voice (34,44,72,89,108)

•

step (84,95,103)
1.2.

Synonymy

•

Girl (2,41) – female guest (24) – women (34)

•

Butler (9) – servant (16)

•

The groups – men and girls (2)

•

Lawn (68) – garden (80)

•

Arrived (20) – come (28)

18

•

Car (29) - automobiles (54)

•

Single (80) – alone (81)
1.3.

Antonymy:

•

Men (1)>< Girls (1)

•

Came >< went (2,57)

•

Pice >< whole (26)

•

Dissolve (40)>< form (41)

•

Wanderer (41) >< the souter (42)

•

Hush (48)>< chatter (49)

•

Girls >< men (105)

•

Win (96)>< lost (97)
1.4.

•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Superordinate and Meronymy

1.4.1. Superodinate

Car (29) – ominibus (6) – automobiles (74)
Hor d’oeuver (20) - spiced baked hams, salads of harlequin designs, pastry pigs,
turkeys bewitched to a dark gold (20,21)
1.4.2 Meronymy
Machine – button
Train - wagon (18)
Orchestra (26) - oboes, trombones, saxophones, viols , cornets , piccolos , drums
(27,28)
Gown (113) – bead (116)
House (52)– kitchen (14)
Buffee (20)- hors d’ocurve (20)
Fruiter (12)- lemons and oranges (12)
19


1.5.

General words:

•

Men (2)

•

Girls (2)

•

Thing (118)

•

Place (88)

•

Affair (26)

2. Collocations
•

Car - park (29)

•

Sun (37)-light (37)

•

Behavior (56)- conduct (56)

•

The tourament (97) -win, lost (96)

•

Foot (94)-steps (96)

•

Gown (113)-wear (115)

•

Party - chatter, laughter, voice, meetings (33,34)

•

Formal note (64)-sign (65)

•

Bond, insurance (73)-money (74)

C.ENGLISH – VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION
English

Vietnamese

There was music from my neighbor’s
Bên nhà người láng giềng của tôi, tiếng
house through the summer nights. In his nhạc réo rắt suốt các đêm hè. Trong khu
blue gardens men and girls came and went vườn màu xanh của Gatsby, đàn ông đàn bà
20


like moths among the whisperings and the
cham-pagne and the stars. At high tide 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
motorboats slit the waters of the Sound,
drawing aquaplanes over cataracts of foam.
On weekends his Rolls-Royce became an
omnibus, bearing parties to and from the
city, between nine in the morning and long
past midnight, while his station wagon
scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet
all trains. And on Mondays eight servants
including an extra gardener toiled all day
with mops and scrubbing brushes and
hammers and garden-shears, repairing the
ravages of the night before.
Every Friday five crates of oranges and
lemons arrived from a fruiterer in New York
every Monday these same oranges and
lemons left his back door in a pyramid of
pulpless halves. There was a machine in the
kitchen which could extract the juice of two
hundred oranges in half an hour, if a little
button was pressed two hundred times by a
butler’s thumb.
At least once a fortnight a corps of
caterers came down with several hundred
feet of canvas and enough colored lights to
make a Christmas tree of Gatsby’s
enormous garden. On buffet tables,
garnished with glistening hors d’oeuvre,

spiced baked hams crowded against salads
of harlequin designs 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 and liquors and
21

người đến kẻ đi như những con bướm đêm
giữa những tiếng thì thào, rượu sâm banh và
các vì sao. Chiều chiều, khi thuỷ triều dâng,
tơi đứng ngắm đám khách của Gatsby đùa
giỡn với sóng biển hoặc tắm nắng trên bãi
cát nóng thuộc khu vực nhà anh, trong khi
hai xuồng máy rẽ nước trên mặt vịnh kéo
những tấm ván lướt nặng qua những xoáy
nước sủi bọt. Vào những ngày cuối tuần,
chiếc xe Rolls Royce lộng lẫy của Gatsby
biến thành một chiếc xe buýt con đưa đón
các vị khách đi về giữa thành phố và những
bữa tiệc suốt từ chín giờ sáng đến tận quá
nửa đêm, trong khi chiếc xe du lịch có
khoang chở hàng rộng đằng sau của anh vụt
đi vụt lại như một con ong vàng choé ra ga
đón tất cả các chuyến tàu. Thứ hai hàng
tuần, tám gia nhân cộng thêm một người thợ
làm vườn làm quần quật cả ngày với nào
chổi và bàn chải, nào kìm, búa và dao xén
cây, sửa chữa những hư hại của đêm trước.
Cứ vào thứ sáu hàng tuần, một cửa hàng
rau quả ở New York gửi đến năm hòm cam

và chanh, và tuần nào cũng vậy, cứ đến thứ
hai thì chỗ cam, chanh ấy, bị bổ làm đôi và
moi hết ruột, chất thành từng đống ở đằng
cửa sau nhà anh ta . Ở nhà bếp có một cái
máy trong nửa giờ có thể vắt được hai trăm
quả chanh nếu được ngón tay cái của một
gia nhân ấn hai trăm lần lên một cái nút nhỏ.
Ít nhất nửa tháng một lần, một nhóm
thợ trang trí mang đến vài trăm mét vải và
đủ các loại đèn màu để trang trí cây thơng
Noel cho khu vườn rộng lớn của Gatsby.
Trên bàn tiệc tự chọn , lấp lánh các món
khai vị là những khúc giăm-bông nướng
đậm đà nằm chen giữa những đĩa rau tươi


with cordials so long forgotten that most of
his female guests were too young to know
one from another.
By seven o’clock the orchestra has
arrived—no thin five- piece affair but a
whole pitful of oboes and trombones and
saxophones and viols and cornets and
piccolos and low and high drums. The last
swimmers have come in from the beach
now and are dressing upstairs; the cars from
New York are parked five deep in the drive,
and already the halls and salons and
verandas are gaudy with primary colors and
hair shorn in strange new ways and shawls

beyond the dreams of Castile. The bar is in
full swing and floating rounds of cocktails
permeate the garden outside until the air is
alive with chatter and laughter and casual
innuendo and introductions forgotten on the
spot and enthusiastic meetings between
women who never knew each other’s
names.
The lights grow brighter as the earth
lurches away from the sun and now the
orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music
and the opera of voices pitches a key higher.
Laughter is easier, minute by minute,
spilled with prodigality, tipped out at a
cheerful word. The groups change more
swiftly, swell with new arrivals, dissolve
and form in the same breath already there
are wanderers, confident girls who weave
here and there among the stouter and more
stable, become for a sharp, joyous moment
the center of a group and then excited with
triumph glide on through the sea- change of

22

màu sắc sặc sỡ, những khoanh bánh nhồi
thịt lợn và những con gà tây vàng rộm như
được quay bằng ma thuật. Tại sảnh chính đã
dựng lên một quầy rượu chất đầy các loại
rượu trắng, rượu mùi, rượu khai vị, những

loại rượu đã biến mất từ lâu trên thị trường
đến nỗi hầu hết các đám khách nữ của
Gatsby còn quá trẻ để phân biệt nổi loại nào
với loại nào.
Bảy giờ thì dàn nhạc đến, khơng phải là
một tốp nhạc nhỏ năm sáu người, mà là cả
một đoàn nhạc công chơi đủ các loại kèn
sáo, oboe, trombone, saxophone, cornet và
piccolo cùng với trống cái và trống con. Đến
giờ này, đám khách bơi ngoài bãi biển đã
kéo nhau về hết và đang mặc quần áo trên
lầu. Những chiếc ô tô từ New York đến đỗ
hàng năm trên đường xe chạy trong vườn,
và ở các gian tiền sảnh, các phòng khách và
hàng hiên đã sặc sỡ những màu sắc sống
sượng, những kiểu tóc mới lạ, những chiếc
khăn chồng Castile nằm mơ cũng không
thấy. Quầy rượu hoạt động nhộn nhịp, các li
rượu từng khay được mang ra vườn cho đến
khi khơng khí bên ngồi tràn ngập tiếng
cười nói, những câu bóng gió vơ tình, những
lời giới thiệu nghe rồi qn ngay và những
cuộc gặp gỡ nồng nhiệt giữa những đám
khách nữ không bao giờ thuộc tên nhau.
Ánh đèn mỗi lúc một rực rỡ hơn khi
trái đất khuất dần sau ánh mặt trời. Và ngay
lúc này khi dàn nhạc tấu lên điệu nhạc
cocktail vàng thì bản hợp xướng các giọng
người lại cao thêm một nấc nữa. Mỗi phút
tiếng cười một dễ dàng hơn, mỗi lúc lại lan

rộng ra , bật ra giòn giã sau một lời đùa vui.
Các nhóm khách khứa thay hình đổi dạng


faces and voices and color under the
constantly changing light.
Suddenly one of these gypsies in
trembling opal, seizes a cocktail out of the
air, dumps it down for courage and moving
her hands like Frisco dances out alone on
the canvas platform. A momentary hush; the
orchestra leader varies his rhythm
obligingly for her and there is a burst of
chatter as the erroneous news goes around
that she is Gilda Gray’s understudy from the
‘Follies.’ The party has begun.
I believe that on the first night I went to
Gatsby’s house I was one of the few guests
who had been invited. People were not
invited they went there. They got into
automobiles which bore them out to Long
Island and some- how 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 be- havior
associated
with
amusement
parks.

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.
I had been actually invited. A chauffeur
in a uniform of robin’s egg blue crossed my
lawn early that Saturday morning with a
surprisingly formal note from his
employer—the honor would be entirely
Gatsby’s, it said, if I would attend his ‘little
party’ that night. He had seen me several
times and had intended to call on me long
before, but a peculiar combination of

23

nhanh chóng hơn , vừa mới trở nên đơng
đúc với đám người mới đến đã lại tan đi rồi
họp lại trong nháy mắt. Đã thấy có những
cơ gái trơ trẽn loăng quăng sà vào đám này
một tí đám kia một tí giữa những cơ gái khác
đẫy đà nên ít xê dịch hơn, bất thần trở thành
trung tâm của một nhóm người trong một
giây phút vui cười hả hê sau đó phấn khích
vì` thắng lợi, lại lướt đi tiếp giữa các gương
mặt, các tiếng nói và màu sắc mỗi lúc một
khác dưới những ánh đèn không ngừng biến
đổi.
Bỗng một trong những cô gái phiêu
lãng ấy, run rẩy trong bộ xiêm áo trong mờ,

vớ lấy một cốc rượu trong không trung, nốc
cạn một hơi để lấy can đảm, tay vung vẩy
như diễn viên múa Frisco, nhảy múa một
mình trên một cái bục phủ vải dày. Khơng
khí lặng trong giây lát. Người chỉ huy dàn
nhạc thay đổi nhịp điệu theo từng nhịp của
cơ ta , và tiếng xì xào bỗng nổi lên vì mọi
người đồn nhau cho rằng cơ ta chính là cơ
đào thường đóng thay vai Gilda Gray trong
“Follies” . Bữa tiệc đã bắt đầu.
Đêm đầu tiên sang nhà Gatsby, tôi tin
rằng tơi là một trong số khách ít ỏi đã được
mời đến dự. Cịn thì mọi người cứ tự nhiên
đến, không cần tới ai mời. Họ bước lên
những chiếc xe hơi đưa họ đến Long Island
rồi bằng một cách nào đó họ xuất hiện trước
cửa nhà Gatsby và được một kẻ bất kì nào
đó đã quen biết chủ nhà dẫn vào. Sau đấy,
họ cư xử theo phép xử sự ở một cơng viên
giải trí. Đơi khi họ đến và đi mà không hề
gặp Gatsby. Họ đến dự cuộc vui với một trái
tim giản đơn được coi là giấy vào cửa.


circumstances had prevented it signed Jay
Gatsby in a majestic hand.
Dressed up in white flannels I went over
to his lawn a little after seven and wandered
around rather ill-at-ease among swirls and
eddies of people I didn’t know though here

and there was a face I had noticed on the
commuting train. I was immediately struck
by the number of young Englishmen dotted
about; all well dressed, all looking a little
hungry and all talking in low earnest voices
to solid and prosperous Americans. I was
sure that they were selling something:
bonds or insurance or automobiles. They
were, at least, agonizingly aware of the easy
money in the vicinity and convinced that it
was theirs for a few words in the right key.
As soon as I arrived, I made an attempt
to find my host but the two or three people
of whom I asked his where- abouts stared at
me in such an amazed way and denied so
vehemently any knowledge of his
movements that I slunk off in the direction
of the cocktail table the only place in the
garden where a single man could linger
without looking purposeless and alone.
I was on my way to get roaring drunk
from sheer embarrassment when Jordan
Baker came out of the house and stood at
the head of the marble steps, leaning a little
back- ward and looking with contemptuous
interest down into the garden.
Welcome or not, I found it necessary to
attach myself to someone before I should
begin to address cordial remarks to the
passers by.

24

Tơi thì đã chính thức được mời. Hơm
thứ bảy ấy, từ sáng sớm, một anh tài xế
trong bộ đồng phục màu xanh vỏ trứng đi
ngang qua bãi cỏ nhà tôi, cầm một bức thư
ngắn trang trọng kinh ngạc của ông chủ.
Bức thư viết là ông Gatsby lấy làm hân hạnh
nếu tôi vui lịng đến dự buổi “dạ hội nhỏ”
mà ơng tổ chức tối nay. Ơng ta đã gặp tơi
nhiều lần và từ lâu đã định sang thăm tơi
nhưng bị ngăn trở vì một loạt tình huống đặc
biệt. Bên dưới kí tên Jay Gatsby bằng một
nét chữ oai vệ.
Trong bộ đồ bằng nỉ trắng, tôi đặt chân
lên khu vườn của Gatsby vào lúc hơn bảy
giờ một chút, đi vẩn vơ hơi ngượng nghịu
giữa những cơn lốc và những đợt sóng
người mà tơi khơng quen biết mặc dù đâu
đó có một bộ mặt mà tôi đã từng gặp trên
các chuyến tàu. Tôi đã ngay lập tức kinh
ngạc về số thanh niên Anh trong đám khách
khứa; họ đều ăn mặc lịch sự, đều có vẻ hơi
đói ăn như nhau, và đều nói chuyện bằng
thứ giọng trầm bổng với những người Mỹ
vẻ vững chắc và làm ăn phát đạt. Tôi chắc
chắn là họ đang gạ bán cái gì đó: cổ phần,
xe hơi hay bảo hiểm. Ít nhất có thể thấy rõ
một điều là họ đau đớn khi nhìn thấy chung

quanh họ những đồng tiền dễ kiếm và tin
rằng chỉ cần một vài lời ăn nói đúng điệu là
tiền bạc ấy sẽ về tay họ.
Vừa đến nơi là tơi tìm gặp chủ nhân
ngay, nhưng hỏi han hai bà khách, họ đều
chằm chằm nhìn tơi bằng ánh mắt kinh
ngạc, và khăng khăng quả quyết rằng họ
hồn tồn khơng biết Gatsby hiện ở đâu, vì
vậy tơi đành lượn lờ về phía bàn rượu, chỗ
độc nhất trong khu vườn mà một người đàn


‘Hello!’ I roared, advancing toward her.
My voice seemed unnaturally loud across
the garden.
‘I thought you might be here,’ she
responded absently as I came up. ‘I
remembered you lived next door to ‘
She held my hand impersonally, as a
promise that she’d take care of me in a
minute and gave ear to two girls in twin
yellow dresses who stopped at the foot of
the steps.
‘Hello!’ they cried together. ‘Sorry you
didn’t win.’
That was for the golf tournament. She had
lost in the finals the week before.
‘You don’t know who we are,’ said one
of the girls in yellow, ‘but we met you here
about a month ago.’

‘You’ve dyed your hair since then,’
remarked Jordan, and I started but the girls
had moved casually on and her remark was
addressed to the premature moon, produced
like the supper, no doubt, out of a caterer’s
basket. With Jordan’s slender golden arm
resting in mine we descended the steps and
sauntered about the garden. A tray of
cocktails floated at us through the twilight
and we sat down at a table with the two girls
in yellow and three men, each one
introduced to us as Mr. Mumble.
‘Do you come to these parties often?’
inquired Jordan of the girl beside her.
‘The last one was the one I met you at,’
answered the girl, in an alert, confident
voice. She turned to her companion:
‘Wasn’t it for you, Lucille?’
It was for Lucille, too.
25

ơng lẻ loi có thể ngồi nán lại mà khơng có
vẻ là cơ đơn và khơng biết dùng thời gian
của mình làm gì.
Tơi đã toan uống cho say mềm chỉ vì
cảm thấy khá ngượng ngùng ở đây thì
Jordan Baker ở trong nhà bước ra, đứng ở
bậc thềm bằng cẩm thạch trên cùng, hơi ngả
người ra phía sau một chút, nhìn xuống khu
vườn với một vẻ dè bỉu.

Được nghênh tiếp niềm nở hay không,
tôi thấy vẫn cần phải tỏ ra thân quen với một
ai đó đã, rồi mới có thể đi thân mật chuyện
trị với những khách qua đường.
- Này – tôi hét lên và tiến về phía Jordan.
Giọng tơi hình như vang to một cách bất
thường ngang qua khu vườn.
- Em đoán chắn anh phải ở đây, – Jordan trả
lời một cách lơ đễnh khi tôi đến gần. – Em
nhớ là anh sống ngay bên cạnh.
Jordan hờ hững nắm lấy bàn tay tôi như
hứa hẹn là một lát nữa sẽ quan tâm đến tôi,
rồi cô nghếch tai về phía hai cơ gái mặc hai
bộ đồ vàng giống nhau vừa mới đứng lại ở
dưới chân thềm. Hai cô gái ấy cùng kêu lên:
- Chào chị! Thật đáng tiếc là chị đã khơng
thắng.
Đấy là họ nói về giải đánh gôn. Jordan bị
thua trong trận chung kết tuần trước.
Một trong hai cơ gái áo vàng nói tiếp:
- Chị khơng nhận ra chúng tôi, nhưng cách
đây một tháng chúng tôi đã gặp chị ở đây
rồi.
- Sau lần ấy, các chị đã nhuộm màu tóc
khác, – lời nhận xét của Jordan làm tơi giật
mình, nhưng hai cơ gái kia đã thản nhiên bỏ
đi, thành ra câu nói của Jordan hóa ra nói
với mặt trăng đang mọc lên sớm, được bày