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Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Part 7. Chapter 1.

Part 7. Chapter 1.

The Levins had been three months in Moscow. The date had long passed on which, according to the most trustworthy calculations of people learned in such matters, Kitty should have been confined. But she was still about, and there was nothing to show that her time was any nearer than two months ago. The doctor, the monthly nurse, and Dolly and her mother, and most of all Levin, who could not think of the approaching event without terror, began to be impatient and uneasy. Kitty was the only person who felt perfectly calm and happy.

She was distinctly conscious now of the birth of a new feeling of love for the future child, for her to some extent actually existing already, and she brooded blissfully over this feeling. He was not by now altogether a part of herself, but sometimes lived his own life independently of her. Often this separate being gave her pain, but at the same time she wanted to laugh with a strange new joy.

All the people she loved were with her, and all were so good to her, so attentively caring for her, so entirely pleasant was everything presented to her, that if she had not known and felt that it must all soon be over, she could not have wished for a better and pleasanter life. The only thing that spoiled the charm of this manner of life was that her husband was not here as she loved him to be, and as he was in the country.

She liked his serene, friendly, and hospitable manner in the country. In the town he seemed continually uneasy and on his guard, as though he were afraid someone would be rude to him, and still more to her. At home in the country, knowing himself distinctly to be in his right place, he was never in haste to be off elsewhere. He was never unoccupied. Here in town he was in a continual hurry, as though afraid of missing something, and yet he had nothing to do. And she felt sorry for him. To others, she knew, he did not appear an object of pity. On the contrary, when Kitty looked at him in society, as one sometimes looks at those one loves, trying to see him as if he were a stranger, so as to catch the impression he must make on others, she saw with a panic even of jealous fear that he was far indeed from being a pitiable figure, that he was very attractive with his fine breeding, his rather old-fashioned, reserved courtesy with women, his powerful figure, and striking, as she thought, and expressive face. But she saw him not from without, but from within; she saw that here he was not himself; that was the only way she could define his condition to herself. Sometimes she inwardly reproached him for his inability to live in the town; sometimes she recognized that it was really hard for him to order his life here so that he could be satisfied with it.

What had he to do, indeed? He did not care for cards; he did not go to a club. Spending the time with jovial gentlemen of Oblonsky's type—she knew now what that meant…it meant drinking and going somewhere after drinking. She could not think without horror of where men went on such occasions. Was he to go into society? But she knew he could only find satisfaction in that if he took pleasure in the society of young women, and that she could not wish for. Should he stay at home with her, her mother and her sisters? But much as she liked and enjoyed their conversations forever on the same subjects—"Aline-Nadine," as the old prince called the sisters' talks—she knew it must bore him. What was there left for him to do? To go on writing at his book he had indeed attempted, and at first he used to go to the library and make extracts and look up references for his book. But, as he told her, the more he did nothing, the less time he had to do anything. And besides, he complained that he had talked too much about his book here, and that consequently all his ideas about it were muddled and had lost their interest for him.

One advantage in this town life was that quarrels hardly ever happened between them here in town. Whether it was that their conditions were different, or that they had both become more careful and sensible in that respect, they had no quarrels in Moscow from jealousy, which they had so dreaded when they moved from the country.

One event, an event of great importance to both from that point of view, did indeed happen—that was Kitty's meeting with Vronsky. The old Princess Marya Borissovna, Kitty's godmother, who had always been very fond of her, had insisted on seeing her. Kitty, though she did not go into society at all on account of her condition, went with her father to see the venerable old lady, and there met Vronsky.

The only thing Kitty could reproach herself for at this meeting was that at the instant when she recognized in his civilian dress the features once so familiar to her, her breath failed her, the blood rushed to her heart, and a vivid blush—she felt it— overspread her face. But this lasted only a few seconds. Before her father, who purposely began talking in a loud voice to Vronsky, had finished, she was perfectly ready to look at Vronsky, to speak to him, if necessary, exactly as she spoke to Princess Marya Borissovna, and more than that, to do so in such a way that everything to the faintest intonation and smile would have been approved by her husband, whose unseen presence she seemed to feel about her at that instant.

She said a few words to him, even smiled serenely at his joke about the elections, which he called "our parliament." (She had to smile to show she saw the joke.) But she turned away immediately to Princess Marya Borissovna, and did not once glance at him till he got up to go; then she looked at him, but evidently only because it would be uncivil not to look at a man when he is saying good-bye.

She was grateful to her father for saying nothing to her about their meeting Vronsky, but she saw by his special warmth to her after the visit during their usual walk that he was pleased with her. She was pleased with herself. She had not expected she would have had the power, while keeping somewhere in the bottom of her heart all the memories of her old feeling for Vronsky, not only to seem but to be perfectly indifferent and composed with him.

Levin flushed a great deal more than she when she told him she had met Vronsky at Princess Marya Borissovna's. It was very hard for her to tell him this, but still harder to go on speaking of the details of the meeting, as he did not question her, but simply gazed at her with a frown.

"I am very sorry you weren't there," she said. "Not that you weren't in the room…I couldn't have been so natural in your presence…I am blushing now much more, much, much more," she said, blushing till the tears came into her eyes. "But that you couldn't see through a crack." The truthful eyes told Levin that she was satisfied with herself, and in spite of her blushing he was quickly reassured and began questioning her, which was all she wanted. When he had heard everything, even to the detail that for the first second she could not help flushing, but that afterwards she was just as direct and as much at her ease as with any chance acquaintance, Levin was quite happy again and said he was glad of it, and would not now behave as stupidly as he had done at the election, but would try the first time he met Vronsky to be as friendly as possible.

"It's so wretched to feel that there's a man almost an enemy whom it's painful to meet," said Levin. "I'm very, very glad."

Part 7. Chapter 1.

The Levins had been three months in Moscow. The date had long passed on which, according to the most trustworthy calculations of people learned in such matters, Kitty should have been confined. La date était révolue depuis longtemps à laquelle, selon les calculs les plus fiables des personnes apprises dans ce domaine, Kitty aurait dû être confinée. But she was still about, and there was nothing to show that her time was any nearer than two months ago. Mais elle était toujours là, et rien n'indiquait que son heure était plus proche qu'il y a deux mois. The doctor, the monthly nurse, and Dolly and her mother, and most of all Levin, who could not think of the approaching event without terror, began to be impatient and uneasy. Kitty was the only person who felt perfectly calm and happy.

She was distinctly conscious now of the birth of a new feeling of love for the future child, for her to some extent actually existing already, and she brooded blissfully over this feeling. Elle était clairement consciente maintenant de la naissance d'un nouveau sentiment d'amour pour le futur enfant, pour elle dans une certaine mesure déjà existante, et elle méditait avec bonheur sur ce sentiment. He was not by now altogether a part of herself, but sometimes lived his own life independently of her. Jis iki šiol nebuvo jos pačios dalis, tačiau kartais gyveno savo gyvenimą nepriklausomai nuo jos. Often this separate being gave her pain, but at the same time she wanted to laugh with a strange new joy. Dažnai ši atskira būtybė jai suteikė skausmo, tačiau tuo pačiu metu ji norėjo juoktis su keistu nauju džiaugsmu.

All the people she loved were with her, and all were so good to her, so attentively caring for her, so entirely pleasant was everything presented to her, that if she had not known and felt that it must all soon be over, she could not have wished for a better and pleasanter life. The only thing that spoiled the charm of this manner of life was that her husband was not here as she loved him to be, and as he was in the country.

She liked his serene, friendly, and hospitable manner in the country. In the town he seemed continually uneasy and on his guard, as though he were afraid someone would be rude to him, and still more to her. Mieste jis atrodė nuolat neramus ir budi, tarsi bijodamas, kad kas nors bus nemandagus jam, o dar labiau jai. At home in the country, knowing himself distinctly to be in his right place, he was never in haste to be off elsewhere. Chez lui, à la campagne, se sachant distinctement à sa place, il n'était jamais pressé de partir ailleurs. He was never unoccupied. Here in town he was in a continual hurry, as though afraid of missing something, and yet he had nothing to do. And she felt sorry for him. To others, she knew, he did not appear an object of pity. Pour les autres, elle le savait, il n'apparaissait pas comme un objet de pitié. On the contrary, when Kitty looked at him in society, as one sometimes looks at those one loves, trying to see him as if he were a stranger, so as to catch the impression he must make on others, she saw with a panic even of jealous fear that he was far indeed from being a pitiable figure, that he was very attractive with his fine breeding, his rather old-fashioned, reserved courtesy with women, his powerful figure, and striking, as she thought, and expressive face. Au contraire, quand Kitty le regardait en société, comme on regarde parfois ceux qu'on aime, en essayant de le voir comme s'il était un étranger, pour avoir l'impression qu'il doit faire sur les autres, elle a vu avec une panique même de peur jalouse d'être loin d'être une figure pitoyable, d'être très séduisant avec sa belle race, sa courtoisie plutôt désuète et réservée avec les femmes, sa silhouette puissante et frappante, comme elle le pensait, et son visage expressif. But she saw him not from without, but from within; she saw that here he was not himself; that was the only way she could define his condition to herself. Mais elle ne le voyait pas de l'extérieur, mais de l'intérieur; elle a vu qu'ici il n'était pas lui-même; c'était la seule façon pour elle de se définir sa condition. Sometimes she inwardly reproached him for his inability to live in the town; sometimes she recognized that it was really hard for him to order his life here so that he could be satisfied with it.

What had he to do, indeed? Qu'avait-il à faire, en effet? He did not care for cards; he did not go to a club. Il n'aimait pas les cartes; il n'est pas allé dans un club. Spending the time with jovial gentlemen of Oblonsky's type—she knew now what that meant…it meant drinking and going somewhere after drinking. She could not think without horror of where men went on such occasions. Was he to go into society? Allait-il entrer dans la société? But she knew he could only find satisfaction in that if he took pleasure in the society of young women, and that she could not wish for. Mais elle savait qu'il ne pouvait trouver de satisfaction qu'en cela s'il prenait plaisir à la société des jeunes femmes, et qu'elle ne pouvait pas souhaiter. Should he stay at home with her, her mother and her sisters? But much as she liked and enjoyed their conversations forever on the same subjects—"Aline-Nadine," as the old prince called the sisters' talks—she knew it must bore him. Bet jai labai patiko ir patiko jų pokalbiai visiems laikams tomis pačiomis temomis - „Aline-Nadine“, kaip senasis princas vadino seserų pokalbius, - ji žinojo, kad tai jam turi trukdyti. Maar hoe leuk ze ook was en voor altijd genoot van hun gesprekken over dezelfde onderwerpen - 'Aline-Nadine', zoals de oude prins de toespraken van de zusters noemde - ze wist dat het hem moest vervelen. What was there left for him to do? To go on writing at his book he had indeed attempted, and at first he used to go to the library and make extracts and look up references for his book. But, as he told her, the more he did nothing, the less time he had to do anything. Mais, comme il le lui a dit, plus il ne faisait rien, moins il avait de temps pour faire quoi que ce soit. And besides, he complained that he had talked too much about his book here, and that consequently all his ideas about it were muddled and had lost their interest for him. Et d'ailleurs, il se plaignait d'avoir trop parlé de son livre ici, et que par conséquent toutes ses idées à ce sujet étaient confuses et avaient perdu leur intérêt pour lui.

One advantage in this town life was that quarrels hardly ever happened between them here in town. Whether it was that their conditions were different, or that they had both become more careful and sensible in that respect, they had no quarrels in Moscow from jealousy, which they had so dreaded when they moved from the country. Que ce soit parce que leurs conditions étaient différentes, ou qu'ils étaient tous les deux devenus plus prudents et plus sensés à cet égard, ils n'avaient pas de querelles à Moscou à cause de la jalousie, qu'ils avaient tellement redoutée en quittant le pays.

One event, an event of great importance to both from that point of view, did indeed happen—that was Kitty's meeting with Vronsky. The old Princess Marya Borissovna, Kitty's godmother, who had always been very fond of her, had insisted on seeing her. Kitty, though she did not go into society at all on account of her condition, went with her father to see the venerable old lady, and there met Vronsky. Kitty, bien qu'elle ne soit pas du tout entrée dans la société à cause de son état, alla avec son père voir la vénérable vieille dame et y rencontra Vronsky.

The only thing Kitty could reproach herself for at this meeting was that at the instant when she recognized in his civilian dress the features once so familiar to her, her breath failed her, the blood rushed to her heart, and a vivid blush—she felt it— overspread her face. But this lasted only a few seconds. Before her father, who purposely began talking in a loud voice to Vronsky, had finished, she was perfectly ready to look at Vronsky, to speak to him, if necessary, exactly as she spoke to Princess Marya Borissovna, and more than that, to do so in such a way that everything to the faintest intonation and smile would have been approved by her husband, whose unseen presence she seemed to feel about her at that instant. Avant que son père, qui a délibérément commencé à parler à haute voix à Vronsky, n'ait fini, elle était parfaitement prête à regarder Vronsky, à lui parler, si nécessaire, exactement comme elle parlait à la princesse Marya Borissovna, et plus encore, à faites-le de telle manière que tout, à l'intonation et au sourire les plus faibles, aurait été approuvé par son mari, dont elle semblait ressentir la présence invisible à cet instant.

She said a few words to him, even smiled serenely at his joke about the elections, which he called "our parliament." (She had to smile to show she saw the joke.) But she turned away immediately to Princess Marya Borissovna, and did not once glance at him till he got up to go; then she looked at him, but evidently only because it would be uncivil not to look at a man when he is saying good-bye.

She was grateful to her father for saying nothing to her about their meeting Vronsky, but she saw by his special warmth to her after the visit during their usual walk that he was pleased with her. She was pleased with herself. She had not expected she would have had the power, while keeping somewhere in the bottom of her heart all the memories of her old feeling for Vronsky, not only to seem but to be perfectly indifferent and composed with him.

Levin flushed a great deal more than she when she told him she had met Vronsky at Princess Marya Borissovna's. Levin bloosde veel meer dan zij toen ze hem vertelde dat ze Vronsky bij prinses Marya Borissovna had ontmoet. It was very hard for her to tell him this, but still harder to go on speaking of the details of the meeting, as he did not question her, but simply gazed at her with a frown.

"I am very sorry you weren't there," she said. "Not that you weren't in the room…I couldn't have been so natural in your presence…I am blushing now much more, much, much more," she said, blushing till the tears came into her eyes. "Non pas que tu n'étais pas dans la pièce ... Je n'aurais pas pu être aussi naturelle en ta présence ... Je rougis maintenant beaucoup plus, beaucoup plus," dit-elle, rougissant jusqu'à ce que les larmes lui montent aux yeux. "But that you couldn't see through a crack." "Mais que tu ne pouvais pas voir à travers une fissure." - Bet kad pro plyšį nesimatė. The truthful eyes told Levin that she was satisfied with herself, and in spite of her blushing he was quickly reassured and began questioning her, which was all she wanted. Les yeux sincères ont dit à Levin qu'elle était satisfaite d'elle-même, et malgré son rougissement, il a été rapidement rassuré et a commencé à l'interroger, ce qu'elle voulait. When he had heard everything, even to the detail that for the first second she could not help flushing, but that afterwards she was just as direct and as much at her ease as with any chance acquaintance, Levin was quite happy again and said he was glad of it, and would not now behave as stupidly as he had done at the election, but would try the first time he met Vronsky to be as friendly as possible. Quand il avait tout entendu, même dans le détail que pendant la première seconde, elle ne pouvait s'empêcher de rougir, mais qu'après elle était tout aussi directe et aussi à son aise qu'avec toute connaissance fortuite, Levin était de nouveau assez heureux et a dit qu'il l'était. heureux de cela, et ne se comporterait pas maintenant aussi stupidement qu'il l'avait fait à l'élection, mais essayerait la première fois qu'il rencontrait Vronsky d'être aussi amical que possible.

"It's so wretched to feel that there's a man almost an enemy whom it's painful to meet," said Levin. "C'est tellement malheureux de sentir qu'il y a un homme presque un ennemi qu'il est pénible de rencontrer", a déclaré Levin. "I'm very, very glad."