Part 8. Chapter 13.

And Levin remembered a scene he had lately witnessed between Dolly and her children. The children, left to themselves, had begun cooking raspberries over the candles and squirting milk into each other's mouths with a syringe. Les enfants, livrés à eux-mêmes, avaient commencé à cuire des framboises sur les bougies et à se gicler du lait dans la bouche avec une seringue. Their mother, catching them at these pranks, began reminding them in Levin's presence of the trouble their mischief gave to the grown-up people, and that this trouble was all for their sake, and that if they smashed the cups they would have nothing to drink their tea out of, and that if they wasted the milk, they would have nothing to eat, and die of hunger. And Levin had been struck by the passive, weary incredulity with which the children heard what their mother said to them. They were simply annoyed that their amusing play had been interrupted, and did not believe a word of what their mother was saying. They could not believe it indeed, for they could not take in the immensity of all they habitually enjoyed, and so could not conceive that what they were destroying was the very thing they lived by. Jie iš tikrųjų negalėjo tuo patikėti, nes negalėjo priimti begalės visko, kas jiems įprastai patiko, ir negalėjo įsivaizduoti, kad tai, ką jie sunaikino, buvo būtent tai, kuo jie gyveno.

"That all comes of itself," they thought, "and there's nothing interesting or important about it because it has always been so, and always will be so. «Tout cela vient de lui-même», pensaient-ils, «et il n'y a rien d'intéressant ou d'important à ce sujet parce qu'il en a toujours été ainsi et le sera toujours. And it's all always the same. We've no need to think about that, it's all ready. But we want to invent something of our own, and new. So we thought of putting raspberries in a cup, and cooking them over a candle, and squirting milk straight into each other's mouths. That's fun, and something new, and not a bit worse than drinking out of cups." "Isn't it just the same that we do, that I did, searching by the aid of reason for the significance of the forces of nature and the meaning of the life of man?" he thought.

"And don't all the theories of philosophy do the same, trying by the path of thought, which is strange and not natural to man, to bring him to a knowledge of what he has known long ago, and knows so certainly that he could not live at all without it? Isn't it distinctly to be seen in the development of each philosopher's theory, that he knows what is the chief significance of life beforehand, just as positively as the peasant Fyodor, and not a bit more clearly than he, and is simply trying by a dubious intellectual path to come back to what everyone knows? N'est-ce pas clairement à voir dans le développement de la théorie de chaque philosophe, qu'il sait à l'avance quelle est la signification principale de la vie, tout aussi positivement que le paysan Fyodor, et pas un peu plus clairement que lui, et essaie simplement par un chemin intellectuel douteux pour revenir à ce que chacun sait? "Now then, leave the children to themselves to get things alone and make their crockery, get the milk from the cows, and so on. «Maintenant, laissez les enfants à eux-mêmes pour aller chercher les choses seuls et faire leur vaisselle, obtenir le lait des vaches, et ainsi de suite. Would they be naughty then? Why, they'd die of hunger! Well, then, leave us with our passions and thoughts, without any idea of the one God, of the Creator, or without any idea of what is right, without any idea of moral evil. Eh bien, laissez-nous avec nos passions et nos pensées, sans aucune idée du Dieu unique, du Créateur, ou sans aucune idée de ce qui est juste, sans aucune idée du mal moral.

"Just try and build up anything without those ideas! "We only try to destroy them, because we're spiritually provided for. «Nous essayons seulement de les détruire, parce que nous sommes pourvus spirituellement. Exactly like the children!

"Whence have I that joyful knowledge, shared with the peasant, that alone gives peace to my soul? «D'où ai-je cette joyeuse connaissance, partagée avec le paysan, qui seule donne la paix à mon âme? Whence did I get it?

"Brought up with an idea of God, a Christian, my whole life filled with the spiritual blessings Christianity has given me, full of them, and living on those blessings, like the children I did not understand them, and destroy, that is try to destroy, what I live by. "Élevé avec une idée de Dieu, un chrétien, toute ma vie remplie des bénédictions spirituelles que le christianisme m'a données, plein d'elles, et vivant de ces bénédictions, comme les enfants que je ne les ai pas compris, et détruit, c'est essayer détruire, ce que je vis. And as soon as an important moment of life comes, like the children when they are cold and hungry, I turn to Him, and even less than the children when their mother scolds them for their childish mischief, do I feel that my childish efforts at wanton madness are reckoned against me. Et dès qu'un moment important de la vie arrive, comme les enfants quand ils ont froid et faim, je me tourne vers Lui, et encore moins que les enfants quand leur mère les gronde pour leurs méfaits enfantins, est-ce que je sens que mes efforts d'enfant la folie gratuite est comptée contre moi.

"Yes, what I know, I know not by reason, but it has been given to me, revealed to me, and I know it with my heart, by faith in the chief thing taught by the church. "The church! the church!" Levin repeated to himself. He turned over on the other side, and leaning on his elbow, fell to gazing into the distance at a herd of cattle crossing over to the river.

"But can I believe in all the church teaches?" "Mais puis-je croire en tout ce que l'église enseigne?" he thought, trying himself, and thinking of everything that could destroy his present peace of mind. Intentionally he recalled all those doctrines of the church which had always seemed most strange and had always been a stumbling block to him.

"The Creation? But how did I explain existence? By existence? Pagal egzistavimą? By nothing? The devil and sin. But how do I explain evil?… The atonement?… Mais comment expliquer le mal?… L'expiation?…

"But I know nothing, nothing, and I can know nothing but what has been told to me and all men." "Mais je ne sais rien, rien, et je ne peux rien savoir d'autre que ce qui m'a été dit et à tous les hommes." And it seemed to him that there was not a single article of faith of the church which could destroy the chief thing—faith in God, in goodness, as the one goal of man's destiny. Under every article of faith of the church could be put the faith in the service of truth instead of one's desires. Sous chaque article de foi de l'église pourrait être mis la foi au service de la vérité au lieu de ses désirs. And each doctrine did not simply leave that faith unshaken, each doctrine seemed essential to complete that great miracle, continually manifest upon earth, that made it possible for each man and millions of different sorts of men, wise men and imbeciles, old men and children—all men, peasants, Lvov, Kitty, beggars and kings to understand perfectly the same one thing, and to build up thereby that life of the soul which alone is worth living, and which alone is precious to us. Et chaque doctrine ne laissait pas simplement cette foi inébranlable, chaque doctrine semblait essentielle pour accomplir ce grand miracle, continuellement manifesté sur terre, qui rendait possible à chaque homme et à des millions de différentes sortes d'hommes, sages et imbéciles, vieillards et enfants. - tous les hommes, paysans, Lvov, Kitty, mendiants et rois à comprendre parfaitement la même chose et à construire par là cette vie de l'âme qui seule vaut la peine d'être vécue et qui seule nous est précieuse.

Lying on his back, he gazed up now into the high, cloudless sky. "Do I not know that that is infinite space, and that it is not a round arch? «Est-ce que je ne sais pas que c'est un espace infini et que ce n'est pas un arc rond? „Ar aš nežinau, kad tai yra begalinė erdvė ir kad tai nėra apvali arka? But, however I screw up my eyes and strain my sight, I cannot see it not round and not bounded, and in spite of my knowing about infinite space, I am incontestably right when I see a solid blue dome, and more right than when I strain my eyes to see beyond it." Mais, même si je bousille les yeux et que je fatigue ma vue, je ne peux pas le voir ni rond ni borné, et malgré ma connaissance de l'espace infini, j'ai incontestablement raison quand je vois un dôme bleu solide, et plus juste que quand Je me fatigue les yeux pour voir au-delà. " Levin ceased thinking, and only, as it were, listened to mysterious voices that seemed talking joyfully and earnestly within him.

"Can this be faith?" he thought, afraid to believe in his happiness. "My God, I thank Thee!" he said, gulping down his sobs, and with both hands brushing away the tears that filled his eyes.