第二章的开头背景部分比较重要，就详细一些。
About half way between West Egg and New York the motor road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for (1.6km的1/4 ，400m), so as to(目的) shrink away from a certain desolate(poor) area of land.
West Egg与NYC之间约一半的地方是公路与火车的一个交汇点。shrink away 此处用到了拟人，因为惊吓而躲避，汇合点是为了躲避这个扬满飞尘破败不堪的地方，能看到这群人的不过是广告牌上T.J.Eckleburg漠然的视网膜。
This is a valley of ashes(灰谷，底层劳苦阶层) — a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of(形成了) houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.
这一段话不好翻译，厚脸皮摘抄一段巫宁坤老师的译文。这是一个灰烬的山谷——一个离奇古怪的农场，在这里灰烬像麦子一样生长，长成小山小丘和奇形怪状的园子；在这里灰烬堆成房屋、烟囱和炊烟的形式，最后，经过超绝的努力，堆成一个个灰蒙蒙的人，隐隐约约地在走动，而且已经在尘土飞扬的空气中化为灰烬了。
Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls (很有动作感) along an invisible track, gives out(发出) a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden(铅的，发音e，在纳尼亚中出现过lead pencil) spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight.(扬起的灰尘让你看不出他们的身行)
第二章的第一段有些长，读完只觉得一切都是灰扑扑的，四周均是破财腐朽，呛得人透不过气。ghastly一词在本书属于高频词汇，多次出现。
But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days, under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground.
广告牌上近一米高的眼睛阴沉沉注视着这片萧索的灰蒙蒙的地方。“上帝的视角”比喻。灰谷的地点也很巧妙，是东西两地(East Egg ,West Egg的分界线)鲜明划分处的阴影。
brood on over:to keep thinking about sth. which you are worried.忧思
Though I was curious to see her, I had no desire to meet her — but I did.(只想见见长什么样，但是打交道就算了。) 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 (grasp,grab) my elbow, literally forced me from the car.(想起了之前推搡着Nick走。)
“We’re getting off,” he insisted. “I want you to meet my girl.”
I think he’d tanked up a good deal(喝多了) at luncheon, and his determination to have my company bordered on violence. The supercilious(傲慢的) assumption was that on Sunday afternoon I had nothing better to do.(每次看这一段，想象Nick说好像我就没没什么事忙一样就想笑。)
Tom的mistress-Myrtle(哈利波特中的桃金娘同词)出场了。
Then I heard footsteps on a stairs, and in a moment the thickish figure of a woman (有些壮实) blocked out the light from the office door. She was in the middle thirties(35左右), and faintly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously(太精细的描写) as some women can.
Her face, above a spotted(stained) dress of dark blue crepe-de-chine(一种布料，双绉纱), conttained no facet(aspect) or gleam of beauty, but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smouldering.(like some chemical reaction)
好看的不在外表，却有一种莫名的野性，some sexually attractive.
She smiled slowly and, walking through her husband as if he were a ghost,(本书高频) 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.”
这一段Myrtle出场简直了，没办法过多描述。请自行体会。
The apartment was on the top floor — a small living-room, a small dining-room, a small bedroom, and a bath.
Tom's flat的描述。因为“小”后述会觉得家居都堆积的海海漫漫的。
The living-room was crowded to the doors /with a set of tapestried (tapestry织锦，挂毯，常见词汇)furniture entirely too large for it,(伴随)/ so that (因此)to move about(here and there) was to stumble continually over scenes of ladies /swinging in the gardens of Versailles.
起居室给一套大得很不相称的织锦靠垫的家具挤得满满当当的，以至于要在室内走动就要不断地绊倒在法国仕女在凡尔赛宫的花园里荡秋千的画面上。(参考译文，侵删)
The only picture was an over-enlarged photograph, apparently a hen sitting on a blurred rock(是指岩石模糊，不是母鸡模糊). Looked at from a distance, however, the hen resolved itself into a bonnet, and the countenance(face or expression) of a stout(本书偏爱词汇) old lady beamed down into the room.
这幅画的描述个人感觉特别有意思。
Several old copies of TOWN TATTLE (《纽约闲话》，Myrtle之前就买了几本的杂志)lay on the table together with a copy of SIMON CALLED PETER(当时的一本通俗小说), and some of the small scandal magazines of Broadway. Mrs. Wilson was first concerned with the dog.最关心的还是狗……
A reluctant (unwilling) elevator-boy went for a box full of straw and some milk, to which he added on his own initiative (主动地) a tin of large, hard dog-biscuits — one of which decomposed (分解v.) apathetically in the saucer of milk all afternoon. Meanwhile Tom brought out a bottle of whiskey from a locked bureau door.
bureau表示意思很多，常见“局，署，司”(哈利波特中很常见)，另一个多为书桌或柜子。此处为后者，a chest of drawers(五斗柜)。因为是在禁酒令期间，Tom的行为就可以细评一二。
对这一段的狗饼干印象极深。电影中整篇第二章还是很还原，虽然色彩太过俗艳。
I wanted to get out and walk southward toward the park through the soft twilight(暮光), but each time I tried to go I became entangled(involved) in some wild, strident (forceful)argument which pulled me back, as if with ropes, into my chair.
Yet high over the city our line of yellow windows must have contributed their share of human secrecy to the casual watcher in the darkening streets, and I was him too, looking up and wondering. I was within and without, simultaneously (置身事外又深陷其中)enchanted (bewitched)and repelled by the inexhaustible (无穷尽的)variety of life.
这是相当有名的一段，在电影或广播剧中都得到了保留，也是个人很喜欢的一段。虽然想起卞之琳的《断章》“明月装饰了你的窗子，你装饰了别人的梦。”但这一段更有尘世五味的复合味，带着几分烧心的凛冽和深沉的醇厚。电影中的片段相当有舞台剧的张力。
第二章内容不多，就出一节。没想到细读还真的很费功夫。
文章解析多为个人感受，仅做记录，请仅仅作为一种参考。