×

We use cookies to help make LingQ better. By visiting the site, you agree to our cookie policy.


image

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Part 6. Chapter 12.

Part 6. Chapter 12.

Waking up at earliest dawn, Levin tried to wake his companions. Vassenka, lying on his stomach, with one leg in a stocking thrust out, was sleeping so soundly that he could elicit no response. Oblonsky, half asleep, declined to get up so early. Even Laska, who was asleep, curled up in the hay, got up unwillingly, and lazily stretched out and straightened her hind legs one after the other. Getting on his boots and stockings, taking his gun, and carefully opening the creaking door of the barn, Levin went out into the road. The coachmen were sleeping in their carriages, the horses were dozing. Only one was lazily eating oats, dipping its nose into the manger. It was still gray out-of-doors.

"Why are you up so early, my dear?" the old woman, their hostess, said, coming out of the hut and addressing him affectionately as an old friend.

"Going shooting, granny. Do I go this way to the marsh?" "Straight out at the back; by our threshing floor, my dear, and hemp patches; there's a little footpath." Stepping carefully with her sunburnt, bare feet, the old woman conducted Levin, and moved back the fence for him by the threshing floor.

"Straight on and you'll come to the marsh. Our lads drove the cattle there yesterday evening." Laska ran eagerly forward along the little path. Levin followed her with a light, rapid step, continually looking at the sky. He hoped the sun would not be up before he reached the marsh. But the sun did not delay. The moon, which had been bright when he went out, by now shone only like a crescent of quicksilver. The pink flush of dawn, which one could not help seeing before, now had to be sought to be discerned at all. What were before undefined, vague blurs in the distant countryside could now be distinctly seen. They were sheaves of rye. The dew, not visible till the sun was up, wetted Levin's legs and his blouse above his belt in the high growing, fragrant hemp patch, from which the pollen had already fallen out. In the transparent stillness of morning the smallest sounds were audible. A bee flew by Levin's ear with the whizzing sound of a bullet. He looked carefully, and saw a second and a third. They were all flying from the beehives behind the hedge, and they disappeared over the hemp patch in the direction of the marsh. The path led straight to the marsh. The marsh could be recognized by the mist which rose from it, thicker in one place and thinner in another, so that the reeds and willow bushes swayed like islands in this mist. At the edge of the marsh and the road, peasant boys and men, who had been herding for the night, were lying, and in the dawn all were asleep under their coats. Not far from them were three hobbled horses. One of them clanked a chain. Laska walked beside her master, pressing a little forward and looking round. Passing the sleeping peasants and reaching the first reeds, Levin examined his pistols and let his dog off. One of the horses, a sleek, dark-brown three-year-old, seeing the dog, started away, switched its tail and snorted. The other horses too were frightened, and splashing through the water with their hobbled legs, and drawing their hoofs out of the thick mud with a squelching sound, they bounded out of the marsh. Laska stopped, looking ironically at the horses and inquiringly at Levin. Levin patted Laska, and whistled as a sign that she might begin.

Laska ran joyfully and anxiously through the slush that swayed under her.

Running into the marsh among the familiar scents of roots, marsh plants, and slime, and the extraneous smell of horse dung, Laska detected at once a smell that pervaded the whole marsh, the scent of that strong-smelling bird that always excited her more than any other. Here and there among the moss and marsh plants this scent was very strong, but it was impossible to determine in which direction it grew stronger or fainter. To find the direction, she had to go farther away from the wind. Not feeling the motion of her legs, Laska bounded with a stiff gallop, so that at each bound she could stop short, to the right, away from the wind that blew from the east before sunrise, and turned facing the wind. Sniffing in the air with dilated nostrils, she felt at once that not their tracks only but they themselves were here before her, and not one, but many. Laska slackened her speed. They were here, but where precisely she could not yet determine. To find the very spot, she began to make a circle, when suddenly her master's voice drew her off. "Laska! here?" he asked, pointing her to a different direction. She stopped, asking him if she had better not go on doing as she had begun. But he repeated his command in an angry voice, pointing to a spot covered with water, where there could not be anything. She obeyed him, pretending she was looking, so as to please him, went round it, and went back to her former position, and was at once aware of the scent again. Now when he was not hindering her, she knew what to do, and without looking at what was under her feet, and to her vexation stumbling over a high stump into the water, but righting herself with her strong, supple legs, she began making the circle which was to make all clear to her. The scent of them reached her, stronger and stronger, and more and more defined, and all at once it became perfectly clear to her that one of them was here, behind this tuft of reeds, five paces in front of her; she stopped, and her whole body was still and rigid. On her short legs she could see nothing in front of her, but by the scent she knew it was sitting not more than five paces off. She stood still, feeling more and more conscious of it, and enjoying it in anticipation. Her tail was stretched straight and tense, and only wagging at the extreme end. Her mouth was slightly open, her ears raised. One ear had been turned wrong side out as she ran up, and she breathed heavily but warily, and still more warily looked round, but more with her eyes than her head, to her master. He was coming along with the face she knew so well, though the eyes were always terrible to her. He stumbled over the stump as he came, and moved, as she thought, extraordinarily slowly. She thought he came slowly, but he was running.

Noticing Laska's special attitude as she crouched on the ground, as it were, scratching big prints with her hind paws, and with her mouth slightly open, Levin knew she was pointing at grouse, and with an inward prayer for luck, especially with the first bird, he ran up to her. Coming quite close up to her, he could from his height look beyond her, and he saw with his eyes what she was seeing with her nose. In a space between two little thickets, at a couple of yards' distance, he could see a grouse. Turning its head, it was listening. Then lightly preening and folding its wings, it disappeared round a corner with a clumsy wag of its tail.

"Fetch it, fetch it!" shouted Levin, giving Laska a shove from behind.

"But I can't go," thought Laska. "Where am I to go? From here I feel them, but if I move forward I shall know nothing of where they are or who they are." But then he shoved her with his knee, and in an excited whisper said, "Fetch it, Laska." "Well, if that's what he wishes, I'll do it, but I can't answer for myself now," she thought, and darted forward as fast as her legs would carry her between the thick bushes. She scented nothing now; she could only see and hear, without understanding anything.

Ten paces from her former place a grouse rose with a guttural cry and the peculiar round sound of its wings. And immediately after the shot it splashed heavily with its white breast on the wet mire. Another bird did not linger, but rose behind Levin without the dog. When Levin turned towards it, it was already some way off. But his shot caught it. Flying twenty paces further, the second grouse rose upwards, and whirling round like a ball, dropped heavily on a dry place.

"Come, this is going to be some good!" thought Levin, packing the warm and fat grouse into his game bag. "Eh, Laska, will it be good?" When Levin, after loading his gun, moved on, the sun had fully risen, though unseen behind the storm-clouds. The moon had lost all of its luster, and was like a white cloud in the sky. Not a single star could be seen. The sedge, silvery with dew before, now shone like gold. The stagnant pools were all like amber. The blue of the grass had changed to yellow-green. The marsh birds twittered and swarmed about the brook and upon the bushes that glittered with dew and cast long shadows. A hawk woke up and settled on a haycock, turning its head from side to side and looking discontentedly at the marsh. Crows were flying about the field, and a bare-legged boy was driving the horses to an old man, who had got up from under his long coat and was combing his hair. The smoke from the gun was white as milk over the green of the grass.

One of the boys ran up to Levin.

"Uncle, there were ducks here yesterday!" he shouted to him, and he walked a little way off behind him.

And Levin was doubly pleased, in sight of the boy, who expressed his approval, at killing three snipe, one after another, straight off.

Part 6. Chapter 12. Teil 6. Kapitel 12.

Waking up at earliest dawn, Levin tried to wake his companions. Se réveillant le plus tôt possible, Levin essaya de réveiller ses compagnons. Vassenka, lying on his stomach, with one leg in a stocking thrust out, was sleeping so soundly that he could elicit no response. Vassenka, couché sur le ventre, avec une jambe en bas en bas, dormait si profondément qu'il ne pouvait obtenir aucune réponse. Oblonsky, half asleep, declined to get up so early. Even Laska, who was asleep, curled up in the hay, got up unwillingly, and lazily stretched out and straightened her hind legs one after the other. Même Laska, qui dormait, recroquevillée dans le foin, se leva à contrecœur, s'étira paresseusement et redressa ses pattes de derrière l'une après l'autre. Getting on his boots and stockings, taking his gun, and carefully opening the creaking door of the barn, Levin went out into the road. Enfilant ses bottes et ses bas, prenant son arme et ouvrant avec précaution la porte grinçante de la grange, Levin sortit sur la route. The coachmen were sleeping in their carriages, the horses were dozing. Only one was lazily eating oats, dipping its nose into the manger. It was still gray out-of-doors.

"Why are you up so early, my dear?" the old woman, their hostess, said, coming out of the hut and addressing him affectionately as an old friend.

"Going shooting, granny. Do I go this way to the marsh?" "Straight out at the back; by our threshing floor, my dear, and hemp patches; there's a little footpath." «Tout droit à l'arrière; près de notre aire de battage, ma chère, et des plaques de chanvre; il y a un petit sentier. "Tiesiai iš galo; prie mūsų klojimo grindų, mano brangieji, ir kanapių pleistrai; yra nedidelis pėsčiųjų takas." Stepping carefully with her sunburnt, bare feet, the old woman conducted Levin, and moved back the fence for him by the threshing floor. Faisant un pas prudent avec ses pieds nus et brûlés par le soleil, la vieille femme conduisit Levin et recula la clôture pour lui près de l'aire de battage.

"Straight on and you'll come to the marsh. Our lads drove the cattle there yesterday evening." Nos gars y ont conduit le bétail hier soir. " Laska ran eagerly forward along the little path. Levin followed her with a light, rapid step, continually looking at the sky. He hoped the sun would not be up before he reached the marsh. But the sun did not delay. The moon, which had been bright when he went out, by now shone only like a crescent of quicksilver. La lune, qui avait été brillante quand il est sorti, ne brillait plus que comme un croissant de vif-argent. The pink flush of dawn, which one could not help seeing before, now had to be sought to be discerned at all. Le rougissement rose de l'aube, qu'on ne pouvait s'empêcher de voir auparavant, devait maintenant être recherché pour être discerné du tout. What were before undefined, vague blurs in the distant countryside could now be distinctly seen. They were sheaves of rye. C'étaient des gerbes de seigle. The dew, not visible till the sun was up, wetted Levin's legs and his blouse above his belt in the high growing, fragrant hemp patch, from which the pollen had already fallen out. La rosée, invisible jusqu'à ce que le soleil se soit levé, mouillait les jambes de Levin et son chemisier au-dessus de sa ceinture dans la plaque de chanvre odorante qui poussait en hauteur, d'où le pollen était déjà tombé. In the transparent stillness of morning the smallest sounds were audible. A bee flew by Levin's ear with the whizzing sound of a bullet. Une abeille a volé près de l'oreille de Levin avec le sifflement d'une balle. He looked carefully, and saw a second and a third. They were all flying from the beehives behind the hedge, and they disappeared over the hemp patch in the direction of the marsh. Ils volaient tous des ruches derrière la haie, et ils ont disparu au-dessus de la parcelle de chanvre en direction du marais. The path led straight to the marsh. The marsh could be recognized by the mist which rose from it, thicker in one place and thinner in another, so that the reeds and willow bushes swayed like islands in this mist. Le marais se reconnaissait à la brume qui en s'élevait, plus épaisse à un endroit et plus mince à un autre, de sorte que les roseaux et les saules se balançaient comme des îles dans cette brume. At the edge of the marsh and the road, peasant boys and men, who had been herding for the night, were lying, and in the dawn all were asleep under their coats. Au bord du marais et de la route, des garçons et des hommes de paysans, qui avaient fait du troupeau pour la nuit, étaient couchés et, à l'aube, tous dormaient sous leurs manteaux. Not far from them were three hobbled horses. Non loin d'eux se trouvaient trois chevaux entravés. One of them clanked a chain. L'un d'eux a fait claquer une chaîne. Laska walked beside her master, pressing a little forward and looking round. Laska marchait à côté de son maître, se pressant un peu en avant et regardant autour d'elle. Passing the sleeping peasants and reaching the first reeds, Levin examined his pistols and let his dog off. Passant les paysans endormis et atteignant les premiers roseaux, Levin examina ses pistolets et lâcha son chien. One of the horses, a sleek, dark-brown three-year-old, seeing the dog, started away, switched its tail and snorted. Un des chevaux, un enfant de trois ans, élégant et brun foncé, voyant le chien, sursauta, changea de queue et renifla. The other horses too were frightened, and splashing through the water with their hobbled legs, and drawing their hoofs out of the thick mud with a squelching sound, they bounded out of the marsh. Les autres chevaux aussi étaient effrayés, et éclaboussant dans l'eau avec leurs pattes entravées, et tirant leurs sabots hors de la boue épaisse avec un bruit sourd, ils bondirent hors du marais. Laska stopped, looking ironically at the horses and inquiringly at Levin. Levin patted Laska, and whistled as a sign that she might begin. Levin tapota Laska et siffla comme un signe qu'elle pourrait commencer. Levin klopte Laska en floot als teken dat ze misschien zou beginnen.

Laska ran joyfully and anxiously through the slush that swayed under her. Laska courut joyeusement et anxieusement dans la neige fondante qui se balançait sous elle.

Running into the marsh among the familiar scents of roots, marsh plants, and slime, and the extraneous smell of horse dung, Laska detected at once a smell that pervaded the whole marsh, the scent of that strong-smelling bird that always excited her more than any other. Here and there among the moss and marsh plants this scent was very strong, but it was impossible to determine in which direction it grew stronger or fainter. To find the direction, she had to go farther away from the wind. Not feeling the motion of her legs, Laska bounded with a stiff gallop, so that at each bound she could stop short, to the right, away from the wind that blew from the east before sunrise, and turned facing the wind. Ne sentant pas le mouvement de ses jambes, Laska bondit d'un galop raide, de sorte qu'à chaque bond elle pût s'arrêter court, à droite, loin du vent qui soufflait de l'est avant le lever du soleil, et se retourna face au vent. Sniffing in the air with dilated nostrils, she felt at once that not their tracks only but they themselves were here before her, and not one, but many. Reniflant l'air avec des narines dilatées, elle sentit aussitôt que non seulement leurs traces mais eux-mêmes étaient là devant elle, et non pas une, mais plusieurs. Uostydama orą išsiplėtusiomis šnervėmis, ji iškart pajuto, kad prieš ją čia ne tik jų pėdsakai, bet ir jie patys, ir ne vienas, o daugelis. Laska slackened her speed. Laska ralentit sa vitesse. They were here, but where precisely she could not yet determine. To find the very spot, she began to make a circle, when suddenly her master's voice drew her off. Pour trouver l'endroit même, elle a commencé à faire un cercle, quand soudain la voix de son maître l'a attirée. "Laska! here?" he asked, pointing her to a different direction. She stopped, asking him if she had better not go on doing as she had begun. Elle s'arrêta, lui demandant si elle ferait mieux de ne pas continuer comme elle avait commencé. But he repeated his command in an angry voice, pointing to a spot covered with water, where there could not be anything. She obeyed him, pretending she was looking, so as to please him, went round it, and went back to her former position, and was at once aware of the scent again. Now when he was not hindering her, she knew what to do, and without looking at what was under her feet, and to her vexation stumbling over a high stump into the water, but righting herself with her strong, supple legs, she began making the circle which was to make all clear to her. Maintenant, quand il ne la gênait pas, elle savait quoi faire, et sans regarder ce qu'il y avait sous ses pieds, et à sa vexation trébuchant sur une souche haute dans l'eau, mais se redressant avec ses jambes fortes et souples, elle a commencé à faire le cercle qui devait tout lui faire comprendre. The scent of them reached her, stronger and stronger, and more and more defined, and all at once it became perfectly clear to her that one of them was here, behind this tuft of reeds, five paces in front of her; she stopped, and her whole body was still and rigid. Leur odeur l'atteignit, de plus en plus forte, de plus en plus définie, et tout à coup il lui devint parfaitement clair que l'un d'eux était là, derrière cette touffe de roseaux, cinq pas devant elle; elle s'arrêta, et tout son corps était immobile et rigide. On her short legs she could see nothing in front of her, but by the scent she knew it was sitting not more than five paces off. Sur ses jambes courtes, elle ne pouvait rien voir devant elle, mais à l'odeur, elle savait qu'elle n'était pas à plus de cinq pas. She stood still, feeling more and more conscious of it, and enjoying it in anticipation. Elle resta immobile, se sentant de plus en plus consciente de cela et l'appréciant par anticipation. Her tail was stretched straight and tense, and only wagging at the extreme end. Sa queue était tendue et tendue, et ne remuait qu'à l'extrême. Her mouth was slightly open, her ears raised. One ear had been turned wrong side out as she ran up, and she breathed heavily but warily, and still more warily looked round, but more with her eyes than her head, to her master. Une oreille avait été tournée du mauvais côté pendant qu'elle courait, et elle respirait fortement mais avec méfiance, et elle regardait encore plus prudemment, mais plus avec ses yeux que sa tête, vers son maître. He was coming along with the face she knew so well, though the eyes were always terrible to her. Il venait avec le visage qu'elle connaissait si bien, même si les yeux étaient toujours terribles pour elle. He stumbled over the stump as he came, and moved, as she thought, extraordinarily slowly. She thought he came slowly, but he was running.

Noticing Laska's special attitude as she crouched on the ground, as it were, scratching big prints with her hind paws, and with her mouth slightly open, Levin knew she was pointing at grouse, and with an inward prayer for luck, especially with the first bird, he ran up to her. Remarquant l'attitude particulière de Laska alors qu'elle s'accroupissait sur le sol, pour ainsi dire, grattant de grandes empreintes avec ses pattes postérieures, et avec sa bouche légèrement ouverte, Levin savait qu'elle désignait la tétras, et avec une prière intérieure pour la chance, surtout avec le premier oiseau, il a couru vers elle. Coming quite close up to her, he could from his height look beyond her, and he saw with his eyes what she was seeing with her nose. In a space between two little thickets, at a couple of yards' distance, he could see a grouse. In een ruimte tussen twee struikgewas, op een paar meter afstand, kon hij een korhoen zien. Turning its head, it was listening. Then lightly preening and folding its wings, it disappeared round a corner with a clumsy wag of its tail. Puis lissant légèrement et repliant ses ailes, il disparut dans un coin avec un mouvement maladroit de sa queue.

"Fetch it, fetch it!" shouted Levin, giving Laska a shove from behind. cria Levin, poussant Laska par derrière.

"But I can't go," thought Laska. "Where am I to go? From here I feel them, but if I move forward I shall know nothing of where they are or who they are." De là, je les sens, mais si j'avance, je ne saurai rien de l'endroit où ils se trouvent ni de qui ils sont. " But then he shoved her with his knee, and in an excited whisper said, "Fetch it, Laska." Mais ensuite il la poussa avec son genou, et dans un murmure excité, il dit: "Va chercher, Laska." "Well, if that's what he wishes, I'll do it, but I can't answer for myself now," she thought, and darted forward as fast as her legs would carry her between the thick bushes. «Eh bien, si c'est ce qu'il souhaite, je le ferai, mais je ne peux pas répondre de moi-même maintenant», pensa-t-elle, et elle s'élança aussi vite que ses jambes la porteraient entre les buissons épais. She scented nothing now; she could only see and hear, without understanding anything.

Ten paces from her former place a grouse rose with a guttural cry and the peculiar round sound of its wings. À dix pas de son ancien lieu, un tétras se leva avec un cri guttural et le son étrange et rond de ses ailes. And immediately after the shot it splashed heavily with its white breast on the wet mire. Et aussitôt après le coup, il éclaboussa lourdement avec sa poitrine blanche sur la boue humide. Another bird did not linger, but rose behind Levin without the dog. Un autre oiseau ne s'attarda pas, mais se leva derrière Levin sans le chien. When Levin turned towards it, it was already some way off. Quand Levin se tourna vers lui, c'était déjà assez éloigné. Kai Levinas pasuko link jo, tai jau buvo toli. But his shot caught it. Flying twenty paces further, the second grouse rose upwards, and whirling round like a ball, dropped heavily on a dry place. Volant vingt pas plus loin, le deuxième tétras se leva et, tournoyant comme une balle, tomba lourdement sur un endroit sec.

"Come, this is going to be some good!" "Viens, ça va être du bon!" thought Levin, packing the warm and fat grouse into his game bag. "Eh, Laska, will it be good?" "Eh, Laska, ça va être bon?" When Levin, after loading his gun, moved on, the sun had fully risen, though unseen behind the storm-clouds. Quand Levin, après avoir chargé son arme, est parti, le soleil s'était complètement levé, bien que invisible derrière les nuages d'orage. The moon had lost all of its luster, and was like a white cloud in the sky. La lune avait perdu tout son éclat et ressemblait à un nuage blanc dans le ciel. Not a single star could be seen. The sedge, silvery with dew before, now shone like gold. Le carex, argenté de rosée auparavant, brillait maintenant comme de l'or. The stagnant pools were all like amber. Les piscines stagnantes étaient toutes comme de l'ambre. The blue of the grass had changed to yellow-green. The marsh birds twittered and swarmed about the brook and upon the bushes that glittered with dew and cast long shadows. Les oiseaux des marais gazouillaient et grouillaient autour du ruisseau et sur les buissons qui brillaient de rosée et projetaient de longues ombres. A hawk woke up and settled on a haycock, turning its head from side to side and looking discontentedly at the marsh. Crows were flying about the field, and a bare-legged boy was driving the horses to an old man, who had got up from under his long coat and was combing his hair. Des corbeaux volaient dans le champ, et un garçon aux jambes nues conduisait les chevaux à un vieil homme, qui s'était levé de sous son long manteau et se peignait les cheveux. The smoke from the gun was white as milk over the green of the grass.

One of the boys ran up to Levin.

"Uncle, there were ducks here yesterday!" he shouted to him, and he walked a little way off behind him.

And Levin was doubly pleased, in sight of the boy, who expressed his approval, at killing three snipe, one after another, straight off. Et Levin était doublement content, en vue du garçon, qui avait exprimé son approbation, d'avoir tué trois bécasseaux, l'un après l'autre, tout de suite.