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Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Part 2. Chapter 8.

Part 2. Chapter 8.

Alexey Alexandrovitch had seen nothing striking or improper in the fact that his wife was sitting with Vronsky at a table apart, in eager conversation with him about something. But he noticed that to the rest of the party this appeared something striking and improper, and for that reason it seemed to him too to be improper. He made up his mind that he must speak of it to his wife.

On reaching home Alexey Alexandrovitch went to his study, as he usually did, seated himself in his low chair, opened a book on the Papacy at the place where he had laid the paper-knife in it, and read till one o'clock, just as he usually did. But from time to time he rubbed his high forehead and shook his head, as though to drive away something. At his usual time he got up and made his toilet for the night. Anna Arkadyevna had not yet come in. With a book under his arm he went upstairs. But this evening, instead of his usual thoughts and meditations upon official details, his thoughts were absorbed by his wife and something disagreeable connected with her. Contrary to his usual habit, he did not get into bed, but fell to walking up and down the rooms with his hands clasped behind his back. He could not go to bed, feeling that it was absolutely needful for him first to think thoroughly over the position that had just arisen.

When Alexey Alexandrovitch had made up his mind that he must talk to his wife about it, it had seemed a very easy and simple matter. But now, when he began to think over the question that had just presented itself, it seemed to him very complicated and difficult.

Alexey Alexandrovitch was not jealous. Jealousy according to his notions was an insult to one's wife, and one ought to have confidence in one's wife. Why one ought to have confidence— that is to say, complete conviction that his young wife would always love him—he did not ask himself. But he had no experience of lack of confidence, because he had confidence in her, and told himself that he ought to have it. Now, though his conviction that jealousy was a shameful feeling and that one ought to feel confidence, had not broken down, he felt that he was standing face to face with something illogical and irrational, and did not know what was to be done. Alexey Alexandrovitch was standing face to face with life, with the possibility of his wife's loving someone other than himself, and this seemed to him very irrational and incomprehensible because it was life itself. All his life Alexey Alexandrovitch had lived and worked in official spheres, having to do with the reflection of life. And every time he had stumbled against life itself he had shrunk away from it. Now he experienced a feeling akin to that of a man who, while calmly crossing a precipice by a bridge, should suddenly discover that the bridge is broken, and that there is a chasm below. That chasm was life itself, the bridge that artificial life in which Alexey Alexandrovitch had lived. For the first time the question presented itself to him of the possibility of his wife's loving someone else, and he was horrified at it. He did not undress, but walked up and down with his regular tread over the resounding parquet of the dining room, where one lamp was burning, over the carpet of the dark drawing room, in which the light was reflected on the big new portrait of himself hanging over the sofa, and across her boudoir, where two candles burned, lighting up the portraits of her parents and woman friends, and the pretty knick-knacks of her writing table, that he knew so well. He walked across her boudoir to the bedroom door, and turned back again. At each turn in his walk, especially at the parquet of the lighted dining room, he halted and said to himself, "Yes, this I must decide and put a stop to; I must express my view of it and my decision." And he turned back again. "But express what—what decision?" he said to himself in the drawing room, and he found no reply. "But after all," he asked himself before turning into the boudoir, "what has occurred? Nothing. She was talking a long while with him. But what of that? Surely women in society can talk to whom they please. And then, jealousy means lowering both myself and her," he told himself as he went into her boudoir; but this dictum, which had always had such weight with him before, had now no weight and no meaning at all. And from the bedroom door he turned back again; but as he entered the dark drawing room some inner voice told him that it was not so, and that if others noticed it that showed that there was something. And he said to himself again in the dining room, "Yes, I must decide and put a stop to it, and express my view of it…" And again at the turn in the drawing room he asked himself, "Decide how?" And again he asked himself, "What had occurred?" and answered, "Nothing," and recollected that jealousy was a feeling insulting to his wife; but again in the drawing room he was convinced that something had happened. His thoughts, like his body, went round a complete circle, without coming upon anything new. He noticed this, rubbed his forehead, and sat down in her boudoir.

There, looking at her table, with the malachite blotting case lying at the top and an unfinished letter, his thoughts suddenly changed. He began to think of her, of what she was thinking and feeling. For the first time he pictured vividly to himself her personal life, her ideas, her desires, and the idea that she could and should have a separate life of her own seemed to him so alarming that he made haste to dispel it. It was the chasm which he was afraid to peep into. To put himself in thought and feeling in another person's place was a spiritual exercise not natural to Alexey Alexandrovitch. He looked on this spiritual exercise as a harmful and dangerous abuse of the fancy.

"And the worst of it all," thought he, "is that just now, at the very moment when my great work is approaching completion" (he was thinking of the project he was bringing forward at the time), "when I stand in need of all my mental peace and all my energies, just now this stupid worry should fall foul of me. But what's to be done? I'm not one of those men who submit to uneasiness and worry without having the force of character to face them. "I must think it over, come to a decision, and put it out of my mind," he said aloud. "The question of her feelings, of what has passed and may be passing in her soul, that's not my affair; that's the affair of her conscience, and falls under the head of religion," he said to himself, feeling consolation in the sense that he had found to which division of regulating principles this new circumstance could be properly referred. "And so," Alexey Alexandrovitch said to himself, "questions as to her feelings, and so on, are questions for her conscience, with which I can have nothing to do. My duty is clearly defined. As the head of the family, I am a person bound in duty to guide her, and consequently, in part the person responsible; I am bound to point out the danger I perceive, to warn her, even to use my authority. I ought to speak plainly to her." And everything that he would say tonight to his wife took clear shape in Alexey Alexandrovitch's head. Thinking over what he would say, he somewhat regretted that he should have to use his time and mental powers for domestic consumption, with so little to show for it, but, in spite of that, the form and contents of the speech before him shaped itself as clearly and distinctly in his head as a ministerial report.

"I must say and express fully the following points: first, exposition of the value to be attached to public opinion and to decorum; secondly, exposition of religious significance of marriage; thirdly, if need be, reference to the calamity possibly ensuing to our son; fourthly, reference to the unhappiness likely to result to herself." And, interlacing his fingers, Alexey Alexandrovitch stretched them, and the joints of the fingers cracked. This trick, a bad habit, the cracking of his fingers, always soothed him, and gave precision to his thoughts, so needful to him at this juncture.

There was the sound of a carriage driving up to the front door. Alexey Alexandrovitch halted in the middle of the room.

A woman's step was heard mounting the stairs. Alexey Alexandrovitch, ready for his speech, stood compressing his crossed fingers, waiting to see if the crack would not come again. One joint cracked.

Already, from the sound of light steps on the stairs, he was aware that she was close, and though he was satisfied with his speech, he felt frightened of the explanation confronting him…

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Part 2. Chapter 8. Teil 2. Kapitel 8. Bölüm 2. Bölüm 8.

Alexey Alexandrovitch had seen nothing striking or improper in the fact that his wife was sitting with Vronsky at a table apart, in eager conversation with him about something. Alexey Alexandrovitch n'avait rien vu de frappant ou d'incorrect dans le fait que sa femme était assise avec Vronsky à une table à part, en conversation avide avec lui à propos de quelque chose. But he noticed that to the rest of the party this appeared something striking and improper, and for that reason it seemed to him too to be improper. Bet jis pastebėjo, kad likusiai partijos daliai tai pasirodė kažkas įspūdingo ir netinkamo, ir dėl to jam atrodė netinkama. He made up his mind that he must speak of it to his wife.

On reaching home Alexey Alexandrovitch went to his study, as he usually did, seated himself in his low chair, opened a book on the Papacy at the place where he had laid the paper-knife in it, and read till one o'clock, just as he usually did. ||||||||||||||||||||||||The Pope|||||||||||||||||||||| 阿列克谢·亚历山德罗维奇回到家,像往常一样回到书房,坐在矮椅上,在他放裁纸刀的地方打开一本关于教皇的书,一直读到下午一点。就像他平时那样。 But from time to time he rubbed his high forehead and shook his head, as though to drive away something. Bet laikas nuo laiko jis patrynė aukštą kaktą ir papurtė galvą, tarsi norėdamas ką nors nuvaryti. At his usual time he got up and made his toilet for the night. Anna Arkadyevna had not yet come in. With a book under his arm he went upstairs. But this evening, instead of his usual thoughts and meditations upon official details, his thoughts were absorbed by his wife and something disagreeable connected with her. Tačiau šį vakarą vietoj įprastų minčių ir meditacijų apie oficialias detales, jo mintis sugėrė žmona ir kažkas su ja susijęs. Contrary to his usual habit, he did not get into bed, but fell to walking up and down the rooms with his hands clasped behind his back. He could not go to bed, feeling that it was absolutely needful for him first to think thoroughly over the position that had just arisen. Il ne pouvait pas aller se coucher, estimant qu'il était absolument nécessaire qu'il réfléchisse d'abord à la position qui venait de se présenter.

When Alexey Alexandrovitch had made up his mind that he must talk to his wife about it, it had seemed a very easy and simple matter. But now, when he began to think over the question that had just presented itself, it seemed to him very complicated and difficult.

Alexey Alexandrovitch was not jealous. Jealousy according to his notions was an insult to one's wife, and one ought to have confidence in one's wife. La jalousie selon ses conceptions était une insulte à sa femme, et il fallait avoir confiance en sa femme. Why one ought to have confidence— that is to say, complete conviction that his young wife would always love him—he did not ask himself. Pourquoi faut-il avoir confiance, c'est-à-dire une conviction complète que sa jeune femme l'aimerait toujours, il ne se le demandait pas. But he had no experience of lack of confidence, because he had confidence in her, and told himself that he ought to have it. Mais il n'avait aucune expérience du manque de confiance, car il avait confiance en elle et se disait qu'il devait l'avoir. Now, though his conviction that jealousy was a shameful feeling and that one ought to feel confidence, had not broken down, he felt that he was standing face to face with something illogical and irrational, and did not know what was to be done. Or, bien que sa conviction que la jalousie était un sentiment honteux et qu'il fallait ressentir de la confiance, ne s'était pas effondrée, il se sentait face à face avec quelque chose d'illogique et d'irrationnel, et ne savait pas ce qu'il fallait faire. Alexey Alexandrovitch was standing face to face with life, with the possibility of his wife's loving someone other than himself, and this seemed to him very irrational and incomprehensible because it was life itself. All his life Alexey Alexandrovitch had lived and worked in official spheres, having to do with the reflection of life. Toute sa vie, Alexey Alexandrovitch a vécu et travaillé dans les sphères officielles, ayant à voir avec le reflet de la vie. And every time he had stumbled against life itself he had shrunk away from it. Et chaque fois qu'il avait trébuché contre la vie elle-même, il s'en était éloigné. Kiekvieną kartą, kai jis suklupo prieš patį gyvenimą, nuo jo atsitraukė. Now he experienced a feeling akin to that of a man who, while calmly crossing a precipice by a bridge, should suddenly discover that the bridge is broken, and that there is a chasm below. ||||||||||||||||steep cliff|||||||||||||||||| Maintenant, il éprouvait un sentiment semblable à celui d'un homme qui, en traversant calmement un précipice près d'un pont, devait soudain découvrir que le pont est cassé et qu'il y a un gouffre en contrebas. That chasm was life itself, the bridge that artificial life in which Alexey Alexandrovitch had lived. 那个鸿沟就是生命本身,是阿列克谢·亚历山德罗维奇曾经生活过的人造生命的桥梁。 For the first time the question presented itself to him of the possibility of his wife's loving someone else, and he was horrified at it. He did not undress, but walked up and down with his regular tread over the resounding parquet of the dining room, where one lamp was burning, over the carpet of the dark drawing room, in which the light was reflected on the big new portrait of himself hanging over the sofa, and across her boudoir, where two candles burned, lighting up the portraits of her parents and woman friends, and the pretty knick-knacks of her writing table, that he knew so well. ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||private sitting room|||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 他没有脱衣服,而是在餐厅响亮的镶木地板上走来走去,那里有一盏灯在燃烧,在黑暗的客厅的地毯上,灯光反射在新的大肖像上。他自己悬在沙发上方,穿过她的闺房,两支蜡烛在那儿燃烧,照亮了她父母和女性朋友的肖像,以及她写字台上漂亮的小摆设,这是他非常了解的。 He walked across her boudoir to the bedroom door, and turned back again. Il traversa son boudoir jusqu'à la porte de la chambre et se retourna. At each turn in his walk, especially at the parquet of the lighted dining room, he halted and said to himself, "Yes, this I must decide and put a stop to; I must express my view of it and my decision." And he turned back again. "But express what—what decision?" he said to himself in the drawing room, and he found no reply. "But after all," he asked himself before turning into the boudoir, "what has occurred? Nothing. She was talking a long while with him. But what of that? Surely women in society can talk to whom they please. And then, jealousy means lowering both myself and her," he told himself as he went into her boudoir; but this dictum, which had always had such weight with him before, had now no weight and no meaning at all. Et puis, la jalousie, c'est m'abaisser moi et elle », se dit-il en entrant dans son boudoir, mais ce dicton, qui avait toujours eu tant de poids avec lui auparavant, n'avait plus de poids ni de sens du tout. And from the bedroom door he turned back again; but as he entered the dark drawing room some inner voice told him that it was not so, and that if others noticed it that showed that there was something. 他又从卧室门口转过身来;但当他走进漆黑的客厅时,一个内心的声音告诉他,事实并非如此,如果其他人注意到它,就表明有什么东西。 And he said to himself again in the dining room, "Yes, I must decide and put a stop to it, and express my view of it…" And again at the turn in the drawing room he asked himself, "Decide how?" And again he asked himself, "What had occurred?" and answered, "Nothing," and recollected that jealousy was a feeling insulting to his wife; but again in the drawing room he was convinced that something had happened. His thoughts, like his body, went round a complete circle, without coming upon anything new. He noticed this, rubbed his forehead, and sat down in her boudoir.

There, looking at her table, with the malachite blotting case lying at the top and an unfinished letter, his thoughts suddenly changed. |||||||green mineral case|||||||||||||| Là, regardant sa table, avec l'étui de buvardage de malachite posé en haut et une lettre inachevée, ses pensées ont soudainement changé. Ten, žiūrėdamas į jos stalą, viršuje gulint malachito dėmę ir neužbaigtą laišką, jo mintys staiga pasikeitė. He began to think of her, of what she was thinking and feeling. For the first time he pictured vividly to himself her personal life, her ideas, her desires, and the idea that she could and should have a separate life of her own seemed to him so alarming that he made haste to dispel it. It was the chasm which he was afraid to peep into. |||Deep gap||||||| C'était le gouffre dans lequel il avait peur de se faufiler. To put himself in thought and feeling in another person's place was a spiritual exercise not natural to Alexey Alexandrovitch. He looked on this spiritual exercise as a harmful and dangerous abuse of the fancy. Il considérait cet exercice spirituel comme un abus nuisible et dangereux de la fantaisie.

"And the worst of it all," thought he, "is that just now, at the very moment when my great work is approaching completion" (he was thinking of the project he was bringing forward at the time), "when I stand in need of all my mental peace and all my energies, just now this stupid worry should fall foul of me. "Et le pire de tout," pensa-t-il, "c'est que tout à l'heure, au moment même où mon grand travail est en voie d'achèvement" (il pensait au projet qu'il présentait à l'époque), " ayant besoin de toute ma paix mentale et de toutes mes énergies, tout à l'heure, cette stupide inquiétude devrait me tomber dessus. But what's to be done? I'm not one of those men who submit to uneasiness and worry without having the force of character to face them. Je ne suis pas de ces hommes qui se soumettent à l'inquiétude et à l'inquiétude sans avoir la force de caractère pour leur faire face. "I must think it over, come to a decision, and put it out of my mind," he said aloud. "Je dois y réfléchir, prendre une décision, et m'en débarrasser", dit-il à haute voix. "The question of her feelings, of what has passed and may be passing in her soul, that's not my affair; that's the affair of her conscience, and falls under the head of religion," he said to himself, feeling consolation in the sense that he had found to which division of regulating principles this new circumstance could be properly referred. «La question de ses sentiments, de ce qui s'est passé et peut-être passer dans son âme, ce n'est pas mon affaire; c'est l'affaire de sa conscience, et relève de la religion», se dit-il, se sentant consolation dans le sens qu'il avait trouvé à quelle division des principes de réglementation cette nouvelle circonstance pouvait être correctement renvoyée. "And so," Alexey Alexandrovitch said to himself, "questions as to her feelings, and so on, are questions for her conscience, with which I can have nothing to do. My duty is clearly defined. As the head of the family, I am a person bound in duty to guide her, and consequently, in part the person responsible; I am bound to point out the danger I perceive, to warn her, even to use my authority. I ought to speak plainly to her." And everything that he would say tonight to his wife took clear shape in Alexey Alexandrovitch's head. Thinking over what he would say, he somewhat regretted that he should have to use his time and mental powers for domestic consumption, with so little to show for it, but, in spite of that, the form and contents of the speech before him shaped itself as clearly and distinctly in his head as a ministerial report. Réfléchissant à ce qu'il allait dire, il regrettait quelque peu de devoir utiliser son temps et ses facultés mentales pour la consommation domestique, avec si peu à montrer, mais, malgré cela, la forme et le contenu du discours devant lui ont façonné lui-même aussi clairement et distinctement dans sa tête qu'un rapport ministériel.

"I must say and express fully the following points: first, exposition of the value to be attached to public opinion and to decorum; secondly, exposition of religious significance of marriage; thirdly, if need be, reference to the calamity possibly ensuing to our son; fourthly, reference to the unhappiness likely to result to herself." «Je dois dire et exprimer pleinement les points suivants: premièrement, exposition de la valeur à attacher à l'opinion publique et au décorum; deuxièmement, exposition de la signification religieuse du mariage; troisièmement, le cas échéant, référence à la calamité qui peut découler de notre fils; quatrièmement, la référence au malheur susceptible de résulter d'elle-même. " “我必须说并充分表达以下几点:第一,阐述对公众舆论和礼仪的重视;第二,阐述婚姻的宗教意义;第三,如有必要,提及我们可能遭受的灾难。儿子;第四,提到可能对她自己造成的不快乐。” And, interlacing his fingers, Alexey Alexandrovitch stretched them, and the joints of the fingers cracked. Et, entrelaçant ses doigts, Alexey Alexandrovitch les étira, et les articulations des doigts se fissurèrent. Aleksejus Aleksandrovičius, persipynęs pirštus, juos ištiesė, o pirštų sąnariai sutrūkinėjo. 阿列克谢·亚历山德罗维奇把手指交叉在一起,伸了伸手指,手指的关节都裂开了。 This trick, a bad habit, the cracking of his fingers, always soothed him, and gave precision to his thoughts, so needful to him at this juncture. Cette astuce, une mauvaise habitude, le craquement de ses doigts, l'apaisaient toujours, et donnaient de la précision à ses pensées, si nécessaires à ce moment-là. 这个把戏,一个坏习惯,他手指的咔嚓声,总是能抚慰他,使他的思想变得精确,这对他来说是非常必要的。

There was the sound of a carriage driving up to the front door. Il y eut le bruit d'une voiture qui se dirigeait vers la porte d'entrée. Alexey Alexandrovitch halted in the middle of the room.

A woman's step was heard mounting the stairs. Alexey Alexandrovitch, ready for his speech, stood compressing his crossed fingers, waiting to see if the crack would not come again. 阿列克谢亚历山德罗维奇,准备好他的演讲,站着捏着他交叉的手指,等着看裂缝是否会再次出现。 One joint cracked.

Already, from the sound of light steps on the stairs, he was aware that she was close, and though he was satisfied with his speech, he felt frightened of the explanation confronting him… 他已经从楼梯上轻快的脚步声中察觉到了她的近在咫尺,虽然他对自己的话语感到满意,但对面对他的解释感到害怕……