Chapter 15. Number 34 and Number 27 (1) Capítulo 15. Número 34 y número 27 (1) Глава 15. Число 34 и число 27 (1)

Dantes passed through all the stages of torture natural to prisoners in suspense. Dantès passa par toutes les étapes de la torture naturelle aux prisonniers en suspens. He was sustained at first by that pride of conscious innocence which is the sequence to hope; then he began to doubt his own innocence, which justified in some measure the governor's belief in his mental alienation; and then, relaxing his sentiment of pride, he addressed his supplications, not to God, but to man. Il fut soutenu d'abord par cet orgueil d'innocence consciente qui est la séquence de l'espérance ; puis il commença à douter de sa propre innocence, ce qui justifiait dans une certaine mesure la croyance du gouverneur en son aliénation mentale ; puis, relâchant son sentiment d'orgueil, il adressa ses supplications, non à Dieu, mais à l'homme. God is always the last resource. Unfortunates, who ought to begin with God, do not have any hope in him till they have exhausted all other means of deliverance. Les malheureux, qui devraient commencer par Dieu, n'espèrent en lui qu'après avoir épuisé tous les autres moyens de délivrance.

Dantes asked to be removed from his present dungeon into another; for a change, however disadvantageous, was still a change, and would afford him some amusement. He entreated to be allowed to walk about, to have fresh air, books, and writing materials. His requests were not granted, but he went on asking all the same. He accustomed himself to speaking to the new jailer, although the latter was, if possible, more taciturn than the old one; but still, to speak to a man, even though mute, was something. Dantes spoke for the sake of hearing his own voice; he had tried to speak when alone, but the sound of his voice terrified him. Dantès parlait pour entendre sa propre voix ; il avait essayé de parler lorsqu'il était seul, mais le son de sa voix le terrifiait. Often, before his captivity, Dantes' mind had revolted at the idea of assemblages of prisoners, made up of thieves, vagabonds, and murderers. Souvent, avant sa captivité, l'esprit de Dantès s'était révolté à l'idée d'assemblées de prisonniers, composées de voleurs, de vagabonds et d'assassins. He now wished to be amongst them, in order to see some other face besides that of his jailer; he sighed for the galleys, with the infamous costume, the chain, and the brand on the shoulder. Il voulait maintenant être parmi eux, afin de voir un autre visage que celui de son geôlier ; il soupira après les galères, avec le costume infâme, la chaîne et le tison sur l'épaule. The galley-slaves breathed the fresh air of heaven, and saw each other. They were very happy. He besought the jailer one day to let him have a companion, were it even the mad abbe. Il supplia un jour le geôlier de lui donner un compagnon, fût-ce même l'abbé fou.

The jailer, though rough and hardened by the constant sight of so much suffering, was yet a man. Le geôlier, quoique rude et endurci par la vue constante de tant de souffrances, était pourtant un homme. At the bottom of his heart he had often had a feeling of pity for this unhappy young man who suffered so; and he laid the request of number 34 before the governor; but the latter sapiently imagined that Dantes wished to conspire or attempt an escape, and refused his request. Dantes had exhausted all human resources, and he then turned to God.

All the pious ideas that had been so long forgotten, returned; he recollected the prayers his mother had taught him, and discovered a new meaning in every word; for in prosperity prayers seem but a mere medley of words, until misfortune comes and the unhappy sufferer first understands the meaning of the sublime language in which he invokes the pity of heaven! He prayed, and prayed aloud, no longer terrified at the sound of his own voice, for he fell into a sort of ecstasy. He laid every action of his life before the Almighty, proposed tasks to accomplish, and at the end of every prayer introduced the entreaty oftener addressed to man than to God: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us." Il soumettait chaque action de sa vie au Tout-Puissant, proposait des tâches à accomplir et, à la fin de chaque prière, introduisait la prière adressée plus souvent à l'homme qu'à Dieu : « Pardonne-nous nos offenses comme nous pardonnons à ceux qui nous offensent. Yet in spite of his earnest prayers, Dantes remained a prisoner.

Then gloom settled heavily upon him. Dantes was a man of great simplicity of thought, and without education; he could not, therefore, in the solitude of his dungeon, traverse in mental vision the history of the ages, bring to life the nations that had perished, and rebuild the ancient cities so vast and stupendous in the light of the imagination, and that pass before the eye glowing with celestial colors in Martin's Babylonian pictures. He could not do this, he whose past life was so short, whose present so melancholy, and his future so doubtful. Nineteen years of light to reflect upon in eternal darkness! Dix-neuf ans de lumière pour réfléchir dans les ténèbres éternelles ! No distraction could come to his aid; his energetic spirit, that would have exalted in thus revisiting the past, was imprisoned like an eagle in a cage. Aucune distraction ne pouvait venir à son secours ; son esprit énergique, qui se serait exalté en revisitant ainsi le passé, fut emprisonné comme un aigle en cage. He clung to one idea--that of his happiness, destroyed, without apparent cause, by an unheard-of fatality; he considered and reconsidered this idea, devoured it (so to speak), as the implacable Ugolino devours the skull of Archbishop Roger in the Inferno of Dante. Il s'accrochait à une idée, celle de son bonheur, détruit, sans cause apparente, par une fatalité inouïe ; il considéra et reconsidéra cette idée, la dévora (pour ainsi dire), comme l'implacable Ugolin dévore le crâne de l'archevêque Roger dans l'Enfer de Dante.