A little before three the Lutheran minister arrived from Flushing and I began to look involuntarily out the windows for other cars. So did Gatsby’s father. And as the time passed every smoking or chewing other day and the servants came in and stood waiting in the hall, his eyes began to blink anxiously and he spoke of the rain in a worried uncertain way. The minister glanced several times at his watch so I took him aside and asked him to wait for half an hour. But it wasn’t any use. Nobody came.

About five o’clock our procession of three cars reached the cemetery and stopped in a thick drizzle beside the gate—first a motor hearse, horribly black and wet, then Mr. Gatz and the minister and I in the limousine, and, a little later, four or five servants and the postman from West Egg in Gatsby’s station wagon, all wet to the skin. As we started through the gate into the cemetery I heard a car stop and then the sound of someone splashing after us over the soggy ground. I looked around. It was the man with owl-eyed glasses whom I had found marveling over Gatsby’s books in the library one night three months before.

I’d never seen him since then. I don’t know how he knew about the funeral or even his name. The rain poured down his thick glasses and he took them off and wiped them to see the protecting canvas unrolled from Gatsby’s grave.

I tried to think about Gatsby then for a moment but he was already too far away and I could only remember, with- out resentment, that Daisy hadn’t sent a message or a flower. Dimly I heard someone murmur ‘Blessed are the dead that the rain falls on,’ and then the owl-eyed man said ‘Amen to that,’ in a brave voice.
We straggled down quickly through the rain to the cars. Owl-Eyes spoke to me by the gate.


快到三点的时候，路德教会的那位牧师从弗勒兴来了，于是我开始不由自主地向窗户外面望，看看有没有别的车子来。盖茨比的父亲也和我一样。随着时间过去，佣人都走进来站在门厅里等候，老人的眼睛开始焦急地眨起来，同时他又忐忑不安地说到外面的雨。牧师看了好几次表，我只好把他拉到一旁，请他再等半个钟头。但是毫无用处。没有一个人来。五点钟左右我们三辆车子的行列开到墓地，在密密的小雨中在大门旁边停了下来——第一辆是灵车，又黑又湿，怪难看的，后面是盖兹先生、牧师和我坐在大型轿车里，再后面一点的是四五个用人和西卵镇的邮差坐在盖茨比的旅行车里，大家都淋得透湿。正当我们穿过大门走进墓地时，我听见一辆车停下来，接着是一个人踩着湿透的草地在我们后面追上来的声音。我回头一看，原来是那个戴猫头鹰眼镜的人，三个月以前的一天晚上我发现他看着盖茨比图书室里的书惊叹不已。从那以后我没再见过他。我不知道他怎么会知道今天安葬的，我也不知道他的姓名。雨水顺着他的厚眼镜流下来，他只好把眼镜摘下擦一擦，再看着那块挡雨的帆布从盖茨比的坟上卷起来。这时我很想回忆一下盖茨比，但是他已经离得太远了，我只记得黛西既没来电报，也没送花，然而我并不感到气恼。我隐约听到有人喃喃念道：“上帝保佑雨中的死者，”接着那个猫头鹰眼睛的人用洪亮的声音说了一声“阿门！”我们零零落落地在雨中跑回到车子上。猫头鹰眼睛在大门口跟我说了一会话。