Part 8. Chapter 19. Частина 8. Розділ 19. 第 8 部分.第 19 章

Going out of the nursery and being again alone, Levin went back at once to the thought, in which there was something not clear.

Instead of going into the drawing room, where he heard voices, he stopped on the terrace, and leaning his elbows on the parapet, he gazed up at the sky.

It was quite dark now, and in the south, where he was looking, there were no clouds. The storm had drifted on to the opposite side of the sky, and there were flashes of lightning and distant thunder from that quarter. La tempête avait dérivé sur le côté opposé du ciel, et il y avait des éclairs et un tonnerre éloigné de ce quartier. Levin listened to the monotonous drip from the lime trees in the garden, and looked at the triangle of stars he knew so well, and the Milky Way with its branches that ran through its midst. Levin écouta la goutte monotone des tilleuls du jardin, et regarda le triangle d'étoiles qu'il connaissait si bien, et la Voie lactée avec ses branches qui le traversaient. At each flash of lightning the Milky Way, and even the bright stars, vanished, but as soon as the lightning died away, they reappeared in their places as though some hand had flung them back with careful aim. À chaque éclair, la Voie lactée, et même les étoiles brillantes, disparaissaient, mais dès que la foudre s'éteignait, elles réapparaissaient à leur place comme si une main les avait projetées en arrière avec une visée prudente. Kiekvienu žaibo blyksniu Paukščių kelias ir net ryškios žvaigždės išnyko, tačiau kai tik žaibas užgeso, jie vėl pasirodė savo vietose, tarsi kokia nors ranka juos atsargiai nukreipė atgal.

"Well, what is it perplexes me?" Levin said to himself, feeling beforehand that the solution of his difficulties was ready in his soul, though he did not know it yet. "Yes, the one unmistakable, incontestable manifestation of the Divinity is the law of right and wrong, which has come into the world by revelation, and which I feel in myself, and in the recognition of which—I don't make myself, but whether I will or not—I am made one with other men in one body of believers, which is called the church. «Oui, la seule manifestation incontestable et incontestable de la Divinité est la loi du bien et du mal, qui est venue au monde par révélation, et que je ressens en moi-même, et en reconnaissance de laquelle - je ne me fais pas, mais que je le veuille ou non, je suis fait un avec d'autres hommes dans un seul corps de croyants, qui s'appelle l'église. Well, but the Jews, the Mohammedans, the Confucians, the Buddhists—what of them?" he put to himself the question he had feared to face. "Can these hundreds of millions of men be deprived of that highest blessing without which life has no meaning?" "Ces centaines de millions d'hommes peuvent-ils être privés de cette bénédiction suprême sans laquelle la vie n'a pas de sens?" "Ar šiems šimtams milijonų vyrų gali būti atimta ta didžiausia palaima, be kurios gyvenimas neturi prasmės?" He pondered a moment, but immediately corrected himself. "But what am I questioning?" he said to himself. "I am questioning the relation to Divinity of all the different religions of all mankind. I am questioning the universal manifestation of God to all the world with all those misty blurs. Je remets en question la manifestation universelle de Dieu dans le monde entier avec tous ces flous brumeux. What am I about? To me individually, to my heart has been revealed a knowledge beyond all doubt, and unattainable by reason, and here I am obstinately trying to express that knowledge in reason and words. À moi individuellement, à mon cœur s'est révélée une connaissance hors de tout doute, et inaccessible par la raison, et ici j'essaie obstinément d'exprimer cette connaissance en raison et en mots.

"Don't I know that the stars don't move?" "Je ne sais pas que les étoiles ne bougent pas?" he asked himself, gazing at the bright planet which had shifted its position up to the topmost twig of the birch-tree. "But looking at the movements of the stars, I can't picture to myself the rotation of the earth, and I'm right in saying that the stars move. "And could the astronomers have understood and calculated anything, if they had taken into account all the complicated and varied motions of the earth? «Et les astronomes auraient-ils pu comprendre et calculer quoi que ce soit, s'ils avaient pris en compte tous les mouvements compliqués et variés de la terre? All the marvelous conclusions they have reached about the distances, weights, movements, and deflections of the heavenly bodies are only founded on the apparent motions of the heavenly bodies about a stationary earth, on that very motion I see before me now, which has been so for millions of men during long ages, and was and will be always alike, and can always be trusted. Toutes les merveilleuses conclusions auxquelles ils sont parvenus sur les distances, les poids, les mouvements et les déviations des corps célestes ne sont fondées que sur les mouvements apparents des corps célestes autour d'une terre stationnaire, sur ce mouvement même que je vois devant moi maintenant, qui a été ainsi pour des millions d'hommes pendant de longs âges, et était et sera toujours pareil, et on peut toujours faire confiance. And just as the conclusions of the astronomers would have been vain and uncertain if not founded on observations of the seen heavens, in relation to a single meridian and a single horizon, so would my conclusions be vain and uncertain if not founded on that conception of right, which has been and will be always alike for all men, which has been revealed to me as a Christian, and which can always be trusted in my soul. Et tout comme les conclusions des astronomes auraient été vaines et incertaines sinon fondées sur des observations des cieux vus, par rapport à un seul méridien et à un seul horizon, mes conclusions seraient vaines et incertaines sinon fondées sur cette conception de droit, qui a été et sera toujours pareil pour tous les hommes, qui m'a été révélé en tant que chrétien, et qui peut toujours être confié en mon âme. The question of other religions and their relations to Divinity I have no right to decide, and no possibility of deciding." "Oh, you haven't gone in then?" he heard Kitty's voice all at once, as she came by the same way to the drawing-room. "What is it? you're not worried about anything?" she said, looking intently at his face in the starlight.

But she could not have seen his face if a flash of lightning had not hidden the stars and revealed it. In that flash she saw his face distinctly, and seeing him calm and happy, she smiled at him.

"She understands," he thought; "she knows what I'm thinking about. Shall I tell her or not? Yes, I'll tell her." But at the moment he was about to speak, she began speaking.

"Kostya! do something for me," she said; "go into the corner room and see if they've made it all right for Sergey Ivanovitch. I can't very well. See if they've put the new wash stand in it." "Very well, I'll go directly," said Levin, standing up and kissing her. "No, I'd better not speak of it," he thought, when she had gone in before him. "It is a secret for me alone, of vital importance for me, and not to be put into words. "This new feeling has not changed me, has not made me happy and enlightened all of a sudden, as I had dreamed, just like the feeling for my child. There was no surprise in this either. Faith—or not faith—I don't know what it is—but this feeling has come just as imperceptibly through suffering, and has taken firm root in my soul. "I shall go on in the same way, losing my temper with Ivan the coachman, falling into angry discussions, expressing my opinions tactlessly; there will be still the same wall between the holy of holies of my soul and other people, even my wife; I shall still go on scolding her for my own terror, and being remorseful for it; I shall still be as unable to understand with my reason why I pray, and I shall still go on praying; but my life now, my whole life apart from anything that can happen to me, every minute of it is no more meaningless, as it was before, but it has the positive meaning of goodness, which I have the power to put into it." «Je continuerai de la même manière, perdant mon sang-froid avec Ivan le cocher, tombant dans des discussions furieuses, exprimant mes opinions sans tact; il y aura toujours le même mur entre le saint des saints de mon âme et les autres, même ma femme. ; Je continuerai à la gronder pour ma propre terreur et à en avoir des remords; Je serai toujours aussi incapable de comprendre avec ma raison pourquoi je prie, et je continuerai à prier; mais ma vie maintenant, toute ma vie à part tout ce qui peut m'arriver, chaque minute n'a plus de sens, comme elle l'était auparavant, mais elle a le sens positif de la bonté, que j'ai le pouvoir d'y mettre. "