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Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Part 6. Chapter 14.

Part 6. Chapter 14.

Next day at ten o'clock Levin, who had already gone his rounds, knocked at the room where Vassenka had been put for the night. " Entrez! " Veslovsky called to him. "Excuse me, I've only just finished my ablutions," he said, smiling, standing before him in his underclothes only. "Don't mind me, please." Levin sat down in the window. "Have you slept well?" "Like the dead. What sort of day is it for shooting?" "What will you take, tea or coffee?" "Neither. I'll wait till lunch. I'm really ashamed. I suppose the ladies are down? A walk now would be capital. You show me your horses." After walking about the garden, visiting the stable, and even doing some gymnastic exercises together on the parallel bars, Levin returned to the house with his guest, and went with him into the drawing room.

"We had splendid shooting, and so many delightful experiences!" said Veslovsky, going up to Kitty, who was sitting at the samovar. "What a pity ladies are cut off from these delights!" "Well, I suppose he must say something to the lady of the house," Levin said to himself. Again he fancied something in the smile, in the all-conquering air with which their guest addressed Kitty….

The princess, sitting on the other side of the table with Marya Vlasyevna and Stepan Arkadyevitch, called Levin to her side, and began to talk to him about moving to Moscow for Kitty's confinement, and getting ready rooms for them. Just as Levin had disliked all the trivial preparations for his wedding, as derogatory to the grandeur of the event, now he felt still more offensive the preparations for the approaching birth, the date of which they reckoned, it seemed, on their fingers. He tried to turn a deaf ear to these discussions of the best patterns of long clothes for the coming baby; tried to turn away and avoid seeing the mysterious, endless strips of knitting, the triangles of linen, and so on, to which Dolly attached special importance. The birth of a son (he was certain it would be a son) which was promised him, but which he still could not believe in—so marvelous it seemed—presented itself to his mind, on one hand, as a happiness so immense, and therefore so incredible; on the other, as an event so mysterious, that this assumption of a definite knowledge of what would be, and consequent preparation for it, as for something ordinary that did happen to people, jarred on him as confusing and humiliating.

But the princess did not understand his feelings, and put down his reluctance to think and talk about it to carelessness and indifference, and so she gave him no peace. She had commissioned Stepan Arkadyevitch to look at a flat, and now she called Levin up.

"I know nothing about it, princess. Do as you think fit," he said. "You must decide when you will move." "I really don't know. I know millions of children are born away from Moscow, and doctors…why…" "But if so…" "Oh, no, as Kitty wishes." "We can't talk to Kitty about it! Do you want me to frighten her? Why, this spring Natalia Golitzina died from having an ignorant doctor." "I will do just what you say," he said gloomily. The princess began talking to him, but he did not hear her. Though the conversation with the princess had indeed jarred upon him, he was gloomy, not on account of that conversation, but from what he saw at the samovar.

"No, it's impossible," he thought, glancing now and then at Vassenka bending over Kitty, telling her something with his charming smile, and at her, flushed and disturbed. There was something not nice in Vassenka's attitude, in his eyes, in his smile. Levin even saw something not nice in Kitty's attitude and look. And again the light died away in his eyes. Again, as before, all of a sudden, without the slightest transition, he felt cast down from a pinnacle of happiness, peace, and dignity, into an abyss of despair, rage, and humiliation. Again everything and everyone had become hateful to him.

"You do just as you think best, princess," he said again, looking round. "Heavy is the cap of Monomach," Stepan Arkadyevitch said playfully, hinting, evidently, not simply at the princess's conversation, but at the cause of Levin's agitation, which he had noticed. "How late you are today, Dolly!" Everyone got up to greet Darya Alexandrovna. Vassenka only rose for an instant, and with the lack of courtesy to ladies characteristic of the modern young man, he scarcely bowed, and resumed his conversation again, laughing at something.

"I've been worried about Masha. She did not sleep well, and is dreadfully tiresome today," said Dolly. The conversation Vassenka had started with Kitty was running on the same lines as on the previous evening, discussing Anna, and whether love is to be put higher than worldly considerations. Kitty disliked the conversation, and she was disturbed both by the subject and the tone in which it was conducted, and also by the knowledge of the effect it would have on her husband. But she was too simple and innocent to know how to cut short this conversation, or even to conceal the superficial pleasure afforded her by the young man's very obvious admiration. She wanted to stop it, but she did not know what to do. Whatever she did she knew would be observed by her husband, and the worst interpretation put on it. And, in fact, when she asked Dolly what was wrong with Masha, and Vassenka, waiting till this uninteresting conversation was over, began to gaze indifferently at Dolly, the question struck Levin as an unnatural and disgusting piece of hypocrisy.

"What do you say, shall we go and look for mushrooms today?" said Dolly.

"By all means, please, and I shall come too," said Kitty, and she blushed. She wanted from politeness to ask Vassenka whether he would come, and she did not ask him. "Where are you going, Kostya?" she asked her husband with a guilty face, as he passed by her with a resolute step. This guilty air confirmed all his suspicions.

"The mechanician came when I was away; I haven't seen him yet," he said, not looking at her. He went downstairs, but before he had time to leave his study he heard his wife's familiar footsteps running with reckless speed to him. "What do you want?" he said to her shortly. "We are busy." "I beg your pardon," she said to the German mechanician; "I want a few words with my husband." The German would have left the room, but Levin said to him:

"Don't disturb yourself." "The train is at three?" queried the German. "I mustn't be late." Levin did not answer him, but walked out himself with his wife.

"Well, what have you to say to me?" he said to her in French.

He did not look her in the face, and did not care to see that she in her condition was trembling all over, and had a piteous, crushed look.

"I…I want to say that we can't go on like this; that this is misery…" she said. "The servants are here at the sideboard," he said angrily; "don't make a scene." "Well, let's go in here!" They were standing in the passage. Kitty would have gone into the next room, but there the English governess was giving Tanya a lesson.

"Well, come into the garden." In the garden they came upon a peasant weeding the path. And no longer considering that the peasant could see her tear-stained and his agitated face, that they looked like people fleeing from some disaster, they went on with rapid steps, feeling that they must speak out and clear up misunderstandings, must be alone together, and so get rid of the misery they were both feeling.

"We can't go on like this! It's misery! I am wretched; you are wretched. What for?" she said, when they had at last reached a solitary garden seat at a turn in the lime tree avenue.

"But tell me one thing: was there in his tone anything unseemly, not nice, humiliatingly horrible?" he said, standing before her again in the same position with his clenched fists on his chest, as he had stood before her that night.

"Yes," she said in a shaking voice; "but, Kostya, surely you see I'm not to blame? All the morning I've been trying to take a tone…but such people …Why did he come? How happy we were!" she said, breathless with the sobs that shook her.

Although nothing had been pursuing them, and there was nothing to run away from, and they could not possibly have found anything very delightful on that garden seat, the gardener saw with astonishment that they passed him on their way home with comforted and radiant faces.


Part 6. Chapter 14.

Next day at ten o'clock Levin, who had already gone his rounds, knocked at the room where Vassenka had been put for the night. Le lendemain, à dix heures, Levin, qui avait déjà fait sa ronde, frappa à la chambre où Vassenka avait été placée pour la nuit. " Entrez! " Veslovsky called to him. "Excuse me, I've only just finished my ablutions," he said, smiling, standing before him in his underclothes only. „Atsiprašau, aš ką tik baigiau savo prausimąsi“, - sakė jis šypsodamasis, stovėdamas priešais save tik su apatiniais drabužiais. "Don't mind me, please." «Ne fais pas attention à moi, s'il te plaît. Levin sat down in the window. "Have you slept well?" "Like the dead. What sort of day is it for shooting?" Quelle sorte de jour est-ce pour le tournage? " "What will you take, tea or coffee?" "Neither. I'll wait till lunch. I'm really ashamed. I suppose the ladies are down? A walk now would be capital. Une promenade maintenant serait capitale. You show me your horses." After walking about the garden, visiting the stable, and even doing some gymnastic exercises together on the parallel bars, Levin returned to the house with his guest, and went with him into the drawing room.

"We had splendid shooting, and so many delightful experiences!" said Veslovsky, going up to Kitty, who was sitting at the samovar. "What a pity ladies are cut off from these delights!" «Quel dommage que les dames soient coupées de ces délices! - Kaip gaila, kad ponios yra atribotos nuo šių malonumų! "Well, I suppose he must say something to the lady of the house," Levin said to himself. - Na, aš manau, kad jis turi ką nors pasakyti namo damai, - tarė sau Levinas. Again he fancied something in the smile, in the all-conquering air with which their guest addressed Kitty….

The princess, sitting on the other side of the table with Marya Vlasyevna and Stepan Arkadyevitch, called Levin to her side, and began to talk to him about moving to Moscow for Kitty's confinement, and getting ready rooms for them. La princesse, assise de l'autre côté de la table avec Marya Vlasyevna et Stepan Arkadyevitch, appela Levin à ses côtés et commença à lui parler de déménager à Moscou pour la détention de Kitty et de préparer des chambres pour eux. Just as Levin had disliked all the trivial preparations for his wedding, as derogatory to the grandeur of the event, now he felt still more offensive the preparations for the approaching birth, the date of which they reckoned, it seemed, on their fingers. De même que Levin avait détesté toutes les préparations insignifiantes de son mariage, comme dérogatoires à la grandeur de l'événement, maintenant il se sentait encore plus offensant les préparatifs de la naissance prochaine, dont ils comptaient la date, semblait-il, sur leurs doigts. He tried to turn a deaf ear to these discussions of the best patterns of long clothes for the coming baby; tried to turn away and avoid seeing the mysterious, endless strips of knitting, the triangles of linen, and so on, to which Dolly attached special importance. Il essaya de faire la sourde oreille à ces discussions sur les meilleurs modèles de vêtements longs pour le bébé à venir; essaya de se détourner et d'éviter de voir les mystérieuses et interminables bandes de tricot, les triangles de lin, etc., auxquels Dolly attachait une importance particulière. The birth of a son (he was certain it would be a son) which was promised him, but which he still could not believe in—so marvelous it seemed—presented itself to his mind, on one hand, as a happiness so immense, and therefore so incredible; on the other, as an event so mysterious, that this assumption of a definite knowledge of what would be, and consequent preparation for it, as for something ordinary that did happen to people, jarred on him as confusing and humiliating. La naissance d'un fils (il était certain que ce serait un fils) qui lui était promise, mais auquel il ne pouvait toujours pas croire - si merveilleux qu'il paraissait - se présentait à son esprit, d'une part, comme un bonheur si immense, et donc si incroyable; d'autre part, comme un événement si mystérieux, que cette hypothèse d'une connaissance définitive de ce qui serait, et sa préparation conséquente, comme pour quelque chose d'ordinaire qui arrivait aux gens, lui paraissait déroutante et humiliante.

But the princess did not understand his feelings, and put down his reluctance to think and talk about it to carelessness and indifference, and so she gave him no peace. Mais la princesse ne comprit pas ses sentiments, et mit sa réticence à y penser et à en parler à l'insouciance et à l'indifférence, et elle ne lui donna donc pas la paix. She had commissioned Stepan Arkadyevitch to look at a flat, and now she called Levin up. Elle avait chargé Stepan Arkadyevitch de regarder un appartement, et maintenant elle appela Levin.

"I know nothing about it, princess. Do as you think fit," he said. "You must decide when you will move." "I really don't know. I know millions of children are born away from Moscow, and doctors…why…" "But if so…" "Oh, no, as Kitty wishes." "We can't talk to Kitty about it! «On ne peut pas en parler à Kitty! Do you want me to frighten her? Why, this spring Natalia Golitzina died from having an ignorant doctor." "I will do just what you say," he said gloomily. The princess began talking to him, but he did not hear her. Though the conversation with the princess had indeed jarred upon him, he was gloomy, not on account of that conversation, but from what he saw at the samovar. Bien que la conversation avec la princesse eût en effet secoué sur lui, il était sombre, non à cause de cette conversation, mais de ce qu'il a vu au samovar.

"No, it's impossible," he thought, glancing now and then at Vassenka bending over Kitty, telling her something with his charming smile, and at her, flushed and disturbed. There was something not nice in Vassenka's attitude, in his eyes, in his smile. Levin even saw something not nice in Kitty's attitude and look. And again the light died away in his eyes. Again, as before, all of a sudden, without the slightest transition, he felt cast down from a pinnacle of happiness, peace, and dignity, into an abyss of despair, rage, and humiliation. Encore une fois, comme auparavant, tout d'un coup, sans la moindre transition, il se sentit jeté d'un sommet de bonheur, de paix et de dignité, dans un abîme de désespoir, de rage et d'humiliation. Again everything and everyone had become hateful to him.

"You do just as you think best, princess," he said again, looking round. "Heavy is the cap of Monomach," Stepan Arkadyevitch said playfully, hinting, evidently, not simply at the princess's conversation, but at the cause of Levin's agitation, which he had noticed. «Lourd est la casquette de Monomach», dit avec espièglerie Stepan Arkadyevitch, faisant allusion, de toute évidence, non seulement à la conversation de la princesse, mais à la cause de l'agitation de Levin, qu'il avait remarquée. "How late you are today, Dolly!" Everyone got up to greet Darya Alexandrovna. Vassenka only rose for an instant, and with the lack of courtesy to ladies characteristic of the modern young man, he scarcely bowed, and resumed his conversation again, laughing at something.

"I've been worried about Masha. She did not sleep well, and is dreadfully tiresome today," said Dolly. The conversation Vassenka had started with Kitty was running on the same lines as on the previous evening, discussing Anna, and whether love is to be put higher than worldly considerations. La conversation que Vassenka avait entamée avec Kitty se déroulait dans le même sens que la veille au soir, discutant d'Anna et de la question de savoir si l'amour doit être mis au-dessus des considérations mondaines. Kitty disliked the conversation, and she was disturbed both by the subject and the tone in which it was conducted, and also by the knowledge of the effect it would have on her husband. Kitty n'aimait pas la conversation, et elle était dérangée à la fois par le sujet et le ton avec lequel elle était menée, et aussi par la connaissance de l'effet qu'elle aurait sur son mari. But she was too simple and innocent to know how to cut short this conversation, or even to conceal the superficial pleasure afforded her by the young man's very obvious admiration. Mais elle était trop simple et innocente pour savoir couper court à cette conversation, ou même cacher le plaisir superficiel que lui procurait l'admiration très évidente du jeune homme. She wanted to stop it, but she did not know what to do. Whatever she did she knew would be observed by her husband, and the worst interpretation put on it. Quoi qu'elle fasse, elle savait qu'elle serait observée par son mari, et la pire interprétation y serait donnée. And, in fact, when she asked Dolly what was wrong with Masha, and Vassenka, waiting till this uninteresting conversation was over, began to gaze indifferently at Dolly, the question struck Levin as an unnatural and disgusting piece of hypocrisy. Et, en fait, quand elle a demandé à Dolly ce qui n'allait pas avec Masha, et Vassenka, attendant la fin de cette conversation inintéressante, a commencé à regarder Dolly avec indifférence, la question a frappé Levin comme une hypocrisie contre nature et dégoûtante.

"What do you say, shall we go and look for mushrooms today?" said Dolly.

"By all means, please, and I shall come too," said Kitty, and she blushed. "Bien sûr, s'il vous plaît, et je viendrai aussi", dit Kitty, et elle rougit. She wanted from politeness to ask Vassenka whether he would come, and she did not ask him. "Where are you going, Kostya?" she asked her husband with a guilty face, as he passed by her with a resolute step. This guilty air confirmed all his suspicions.

"The mechanician came when I was away; I haven't seen him yet," he said, not looking at her. He went downstairs, but before he had time to leave his study he heard his wife's familiar footsteps running with reckless speed to him. Il descendit, mais avant d'avoir eu le temps de quitter son bureau, il entendit les pas familiers de sa femme courir avec une vitesse imprudente vers lui. "What do you want?" he said to her shortly. "We are busy." "I beg your pardon," she said to the German mechanician; "I want a few words with my husband." The German would have left the room, but Levin said to him:

"Don't disturb yourself." "The train is at three?" - Traukinys trise? queried the German. "I mustn't be late." Levin did not answer him, but walked out himself with his wife.

"Well, what have you to say to me?" he said to her in French.

He did not look her in the face, and did not care to see that she in her condition was trembling all over, and had a piteous, crushed look. Il ne la regarda pas en face, et ne se souciait pas de voir qu'elle dans son état tremblait de partout et avait un regard pitoyable et écrasé.

"I…I want to say that we can't go on like this; that this is misery…" she said. "The servants are here at the sideboard," he said angrily; "don't make a scene." «Les domestiques sont ici au buffet», dit-il avec colère; "ne fais pas de scène." - Tarnai čia prie bufeto, - piktai tarė jis; „nedaryk scenos“. "Well, let's go in here!" They were standing in the passage. Ils se tenaient dans le passage. Kitty would have gone into the next room, but there the English governess was giving Tanya a lesson.

"Well, come into the garden." In the garden they came upon a peasant weeding the path. Dans le jardin, ils rencontrèrent un paysan désherbant le chemin. And no longer considering that the peasant could see her tear-stained and his agitated face, that they looked like people fleeing from some disaster, they went on with rapid steps, feeling that they must speak out and clear up misunderstandings, must be alone together, and so get rid of the misery they were both feeling. Et ne considérant plus que la paysanne pouvait la voir tachée de larmes et son visage agité, qu'ils ressemblaient à des gens fuyant un désastre, ils continuaient à pas rapides, sentant qu'il fallait parler et dissiper les malentendus, qu'ils devaient être seuls ensemble. , et ainsi se débarrasser de la misère qu'ils ressentaient tous les deux.

"We can't go on like this! It's misery! I am wretched; you are wretched. What for?" she said, when they had at last reached a solitary garden seat at a turn in the lime tree avenue. dit-elle, quand ils furent enfin arrivés à un siège de jardin solitaire au détour de l'avenue des tilleuls.

"But tell me one thing: was there in his tone anything unseemly, not nice, humiliatingly horrible?" he said, standing before her again in the same position with his clenched fists on his chest, as he had stood before her that night. dit-il, se tenant à nouveau devant elle dans la même position, les poings serrés sur sa poitrine, comme il s'était tenu devant elle cette nuit-là.

"Yes," she said in a shaking voice; "but, Kostya, surely you see I'm not to blame? All the morning I've been trying to take a tone…but such people …Why did he come? How happy we were!" she said, breathless with the sobs that shook her. dit-elle, essoufflée par les sanglots qui la secouaient.

Although nothing had been pursuing them, and there was nothing to run away from, and they could not possibly have found anything very delightful on that garden seat, the gardener saw with astonishment that they passed him on their way home with comforted and radiant faces.