The valley of ashes is bounded on one side by a small foul river, and when the drawbridge is up to let barges through, the passengers on waiting trains can stare at the dismal scene for as long as half an hour. There is always a halt there of at least a minute and it was because of this that I first met Tom Buchanan’s mistress.
bound : 경계[한계]를 이루다
barge : 바지선[너벅선](운하·강 등에서 사람·화물을 싣고 다니는, 바닥이 납작한 배)
The fact that he had one was insisted upon wherever he was known. His acquaintances resented the fact that he turned up in popular restaurants with her and, leaving her at a table, sauntered about, chatting with whomsoever he knew. Though I was curious to see her I had no desire to meet her – but I did. I went up to New York with Tom on the train one afternoon and when we stopped by the ashheaps he jumped to his feet and taking hold of my elbow literally forced me from the car.
resented : 지인들이 톰에 대해서 분개하는 이유는 무엇인가? 정부를 소홀히 대한다고 분개하지는 않을 것이다. 자기들은 하지 못하는 일을 톰은 너무 태연하게 하고 있어서 분하게 여기는 것이 아닐까.
“We’re getting off!” he insisted. “I want you to meet my girl.”
I think he’d tanked up a good deal at luncheon and his determination to have my company bordered on violence. The supercilious assumption was that on Sunday afternoon I had nothing better to do.
I followed him over a low white-washed railroad fence and we walked back a hundred yards along the road under Doctor Eckleburg’s persistent stare. The only building in sight was a small block of yellow brick sitting on the edge of the waste land, a sort of compact Main Street ministering to it and contiguous to absolutely nothing. One of the three shops it contained was for rent and another was an all-night restaurant approached by a trail of ashes; the third was a garage–Repairs. George B. Wilson. Cars Bought and Sold–and I followed Tom inside.
- under Doctor Eckleburg’s persistent stare : 톰이나 다른 사람들과는 달리 닉은 광고판의 시선을 계속해서 느끼고 있다는 것.
garage : 차량 정비소 겸 주유소(자동차를 팔기도 함)
The interior was unprosperous and bare; the only car visible was the dust-covered wreck of a Ford which crouched in a dim corner. It had occurred to me that this shadow of a garage must be a blind and that sumptuous and romantic apartments were concealed overhead when the proprietor himself appeared in the door of an office, wiping his hands on a piece of waste. He was a blonde, spiritless man, anaemic, and faintly handsome. When he saw us a damp gleam of hope sprang into his light blue eyes.
- unprosperous and bare : unprosperous는 워낙 열악하기도 하고 장사가 잘 안 되기도 해서 경제적으로 부유하지 않고 ‘싼 티’가 나는 모습, bare는 아무것도 칠해지거나 장식된 것이 없는 상태를 묘사한다. 뒤에 톰이 시멘트 색과 뒤섞인다고 하는 묘사와 이어진다.
wreck : (차량·건물 등이) 다 망가지다시피 한 것, 만신창이
occur to : ~에게 생각이 떠오르다
blind : (진실을 감추기 위한) 눈가림
apartments : (특히 궁궐이나 대저택의) 방
waste : 기계 청소 따위에 쓰는 넝마
gleam : (어떤 감정을 드러내는 눈의) 반짝[번득]거림
a damp gleam of hope sprang into his light blue eyes : 피곤하고 지친 축축한(damp) 눈이지만 본래는 담청색(light blue)의 눈으로 맑은 느낌이다. 윌슨은 자기 아내의 정부인 톰을 보자 희망의 눈빛을 보이는데 자기 아내를 뺏아가지만 윌슨에게는 모종의 경제적 이익을 주는 존재로서, 윌슨은 돈을 통해서 자기 본래의 모습을 되찾는 것을 보여준다. 자기 아내를 돈으로 바꾸고 있다.
“Hello, Wilson, old man,” said Tom, slapping him jovially on the shoulder. “How’s business?”
“I can’t complain,” answered Wilson unconvincingly. “When are you going to sell me that car?”
- can't complain : 그럭저럭 잘 지내다, 불평할 것 없다
“Next week; I’ve got my man working on it now.”
“Works pretty slow, don’t he?”
“No, he doesn’t,” said Tom coldly. “And if you feel that way about it, maybe I’d better sell it somewhere else after all.”
“I don’t mean that,” explained Wilson quickly. “I just meant—-”
His voice faded off and Tom glanced impatiently around the garage. Then I heard footsteps on a stairs and in a moment the thickish figure of a woman blocked out the light from the office door. She was in the middle thirties, and faintly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can.
- impatiently – in a moment : 톰이 참을성 없이 있는 것을 알고 있는 것처럼 톰의 정부는 곧바로 모습을 드러낸다. 톰과 정부는 서로를 잘 알고 있다는 것을 보여준다.
thickish : 누군가를 thick하다고 묘사한다면 그를 좀 미련하다(stupid)고 보는 것인데, 이 여자가 닉이 보기에 약간 센스가 없어 보이는 그런 모습이라는 것을 알게 해준다.
윌슨은 faintly handsome하고 그 부인은 faintly stout하다고 묘사한다.
Her face, above a spotted dress of dark blue crêpe-de-chine, contained no facet or gleam of beauty but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smouldering. She smiled slowly and walking through her husband as if he were a ghost shook hands with Tom, looking him flush in the eye. Then she wet her lips and without turning around spoke to her husband in a soft, coarse voice:
“Get some chairs, why don’t you, so somebody can sit down.”
crêpe-de-chine = crêpe of china : 크레이프드신 (주름진 두꺼운 비단의 일종)
crêpe : 크레이프 (비단이나 가는 모직의 주름진 천), 검은 크레이프 상장(喪章)
smoulder : If you someone smoulders, you mean that they are sexually attractive, usually in a mysterious or very intense way. (Coubuild 사전)
“Oh, sure,” agreed Wilson hurriedly and went toward the little office, mingling immediately with the cement color of the walls. A white ashen dust veiled his dark suit and his pale hair as it veiled everything in the vicinity–except his wife, who moved close to Tom.
mingling immediately with the cement color of the walls : 시멘트 색깔과 즉시 섞여 버리면서. ※ 이 대목은 바로 앞에 ‘유령 같은 존재’로 묘사된 것과 같은 맥락에서 이해할 수 있다. 윌슨의 존재감은 재투성이 계곡에 위치한 차고에서 재를 뒤집어쓰며 일하는 그의 사회적 지위로 보나 아내와의 관계의 관점에서 보나 ‘유령’이나 다를 바 없다. 이어서, 희뿌연 먼지가 그의 모든 것을 가려 버리고, 그 가려진 장막을 배경으로 그의 아내가 또렷한 모습으로 톰에게 다가오는 모습을 묘사한 대목은 모순투성이의 사회적 삶의 한 양태를 잘 포착해 내고 있다. (신현욱, pp.74-5)
his pale hair : 29:12에서는 blonde라고 했는데, 원래 머리색이 먼지를 뒤집어쓰고 있어서 흐릿해진 것이다.