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Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Part 8. Chapter 12.

Part 8. Chapter 12.

Levin strode along the highroad, absorbed not so much in his thoughts (he could not yet disentangle them) as in his spiritual condition, unlike anything he had experienced before.

The words uttered by the peasant had acted on his soul like an electric shock, suddenly transforming and combining into a single whole the whole swarm of disjointed, impotent, separate thoughts that incessantly occupied his mind. These thoughts had unconsciously been in his mind even when he was talking about the land.

He was aware of something new in his soul, and joyfully tested this new thing, not yet knowing what it was.

"Not living for his own wants, but for God? For what God? And could one say anything more senseless than what he said? He said that one must not live for one's own wants, that is, that one must not live for what we understand, what we are attracted by, what we desire, but must live for something incomprehensible, for God, whom no one can understand nor even define. What of it? Didn't I understand those senseless words of Fyodor's? And understanding them, did I doubt of their truth? Did I think them stupid, obscure, inexact? No, I understood him, and exactly as he understands the words. I understood them more fully and clearly than I understand anything in life, and never in my life have I doubted nor can I doubt about it. And not only I, but everyone, the whole world understands nothing fully but this, and about this only they have no doubt and are always agreed.

"And I looked out for miracles, complained that I did not see a miracle which would convince me. A material miracle would have persuaded me. And here is a miracle, the sole miracle possible, continually existing, surrounding me on all sides, and I never noticed it!

"Fyodor says that Kirillov lives for his belly. That's comprehensible and rational. All of us as rational beings can't do anything else but live for our belly. And all of a sudden the same Fyodor says that one mustn't live for one's belly, but must live for truth, for God, and at a hint I understand him! And I and millions of men, men who lived ages ago and men living now— peasants, the poor in spirit and the learned, who have thought and written about it, in their obscure words saying the same thing—we are all agreed about this one thing: what we must live for and what is good. I and all men have only one firm, incontestable, clear knowledge, and that knowledge cannot be explained by the reason—it is outside it, and has no causes and can have no effects.

"If goodness has causes, it is not goodness; if it has effects, a reward, it is not goodness either. So goodness is outside the chain of cause and effect.

"And yet I know it, and we all know it. "What could be a greater miracle than that? "Can I have found the solution of it all? can my sufferings be over?" thought Levin, striding along the dusty road, not noticing the heat nor his weariness, and experiencing a sense of relief from prolonged suffering. This feeling was so delicious that it seemed to him incredible. He was breathless with emotion and incapable of going farther; he turned off the road into the forest and lay down in the shade of an aspen on the uncut grass. He took his hat off his hot head and lay propped on his elbow in the lush, feathery, woodland grass.

"Yes, I must make it clear to myself and understand," he thought, looking intently at the untrampled grass before him, and following the movements of a green beetle, advancing along a blade of couch-grass and lifting up in its progress a leaf of goat-weed. "What have I discovered?" he asked himself, bending aside the leaf of goat-weed out of the beetle's way and twisting another blade of grass above for the beetle to cross over onto it. "What is it makes me glad? What have I discovered?

"I have discovered nothing. I have only found out what I knew. I understand the force that in the past gave me life, and now too gives me life. I have been set free from falsity, I have found the Master.

"Of old I used to say that in my body, that in the body of this grass and of this beetle (there, she didn't care for the grass, she's opened her wings and flown away), there was going on a transformation of matter in accordance with physical, chemical, and physiological laws. And in all of us, as well as in the aspens and the clouds and the misty patches, there was a process of evolution. Evolution from what? into what?—Eternal evolution and struggle…. As though there could be any sort of tendency and struggle in the eternal! And I was astonished that in spite of the utmost effort of thought along that road I could not discover the meaning of life, the meaning of my impulses and yearnings. Now I say that I know the meaning of my life: 'To live for God, for my soul.' And this meaning, in spite of its clearness, is mysterious and marvelous. Such, indeed, is the meaning of everything existing. Yes, pride," he said to himself, turning over on his stomach and beginning to tie a noose of blades of grass, trying not to break them. "And not merely pride of intellect, but dulness of intellect. And most of all, the deceitfulness; yes, the deceitfulness of intellect. The cheating knavishness of intellect, that's it," he said to himself. And he briefly went through, mentally, the whole course of his ideas during the last two years, the beginning of which was the clear confronting of death at the sight of his dear brother hopelessly ill.

Then, for the first time, grasping that for every man, and himself too, there was nothing in store but suffering, death, and forgetfulness, he had made up his mind that life was impossible like that, and that he must either interpret life so that it would not present itself to him as the evil jest of some devil, or shoot himself.

But he had not done either, but had gone on living, thinking, and feeling, and had even at that very time married, and had had many joys and had been happy, when he was not thinking of the meaning of his life.

What did this mean? It meant that he had been living rightly, but thinking wrongly.

He had lived (without being aware of it) on those spiritual truths that he had sucked in with his mother's milk, but he had thought, not merely without recognition of these truths, but studiously ignoring them. Now it was clear to him that he could only live by virtue of the beliefs in which he had been brought up.

"What should I have been, and how should I have spent my life, if I had not had these beliefs, if I had not known that I must live for God and not for my own desires? I should have robbed and lied and killed. Nothing of what makes the chief happiness of my life would have existed for me." And with the utmost stretch of imagination he could not conceive the brutal creature he would have been himself, if he had not known what he was living for.

"I looked for an answer to my question. And thought could not give an answer to my question—it is incommensurable with my question. The answer has been given me by life itself, in my knowledge of what is right and what is wrong. And that knowledge I did not arrive at in any way, it was given to me as to all men, given , because I could not have got it from anywhere.

"Where could I have got it? By reason could I have arrived at knowing that I must love my neighbor and not oppress him? I was told that in my childhood, and I believed it gladly, for they told me what was already in my soul. But who discovered it? Not reason. Reason discovered the struggle for existence, and the law that requires us to oppress all who hinder the satisfaction of our desires. That is the deduction of reason. But loving one's neighbor reason could never discover, because it's irrational."


Part 8. Chapter 12. Teil 8. Kapitel 12.

Levin strode along the highroad, absorbed not so much in his thoughts (he could not yet disentangle them) as in his spiritual condition, unlike anything he had experienced before. Levin marchait le long de la grande route, absorbé moins dans ses pensées (il ne pouvait pas encore les démêler) que dans sa condition spirituelle, contrairement à tout ce qu'il avait vécu auparavant.

The words uttered by the peasant had acted on his soul like an electric shock, suddenly transforming and combining into a single whole the whole swarm of disjointed, impotent, separate thoughts that incessantly occupied his mind. Les paroles prononcées par le paysan avaient agi sur son âme comme un choc électrique, transformant soudainement et combinant en un seul tout l'essaim de pensées disjointes, impuissantes, séparées qui occupaient sans cesse son esprit. These thoughts had unconsciously been in his mind even when he was talking about the land.

He was aware of something new in his soul, and joyfully tested this new thing, not yet knowing what it was.

"Not living for his own wants, but for God? For what God? And could one say anything more senseless than what he said? Et pourrait-on dire quelque chose de plus insensé que ce qu'il a dit? He said that one must not live for one's own wants, that is, that one must not live for what we understand, what we are attracted by, what we desire, but must live for something incomprehensible, for God, whom no one can understand nor even define. What of it? Didn't I understand those senseless words of Fyodor's? N'ai-je pas compris ces mots insensés de Fyodor? And understanding them, did I doubt of their truth? Did I think them stupid, obscure, inexact? No, I understood him, and exactly as he understands the words. I understood them more fully and clearly than I understand anything in life, and never in my life have I doubted nor can I doubt about it. Je les ai compris plus pleinement et plus clairement que je ne comprends quoi que ce soit dans la vie, et jamais de ma vie je n'ai douté ni ne peux en douter. And not only I, but everyone, the whole world understands nothing fully but this, and about this only they have no doubt and are always agreed.

"And I looked out for miracles, complained that I did not see a miracle which would convince me. A material miracle would have persuaded me. And here is a miracle, the sole miracle possible, continually existing, surrounding me on all sides, and I never noticed it! En hier is een wonder, het enige mogelijke wonder, dat voortdurend bestaat, mij aan alle kanten omringt, en ik heb het nooit opgemerkt!

"Fyodor says that Kirillov lives for his belly. That's comprehensible and rational. All of us as rational beings can't do anything else but live for our belly. Nous tous, en tant qu'êtres rationnels, ne pouvons rien faire d'autre que vivre pour notre ventre. And all of a sudden the same Fyodor says that one mustn't live for one's belly, but must live for truth, for God, and at a hint I understand him! And I and millions of men, men who lived ages ago and men living now— peasants, the poor in spirit and the learned, who have thought and written about it, in their obscure words saying the same thing—we are all agreed about this one thing: what we must live for and what is good. I and all men have only one firm, incontestable, clear knowledge, and that knowledge cannot be explained by the reason—it is outside it, and has no causes and can have no effects. Aš ir visi vyrai turime tik vieną tvirtą, neginčijamą, aiškią žinią, ir šios žinios negali būti paaiškintos priežastimi - jos yra už jos ribų, neturi priežasčių ir negali turėti pasekmių.

"If goodness has causes, it is not goodness; if it has effects, a reward, it is not goodness either. «Si la bonté a des causes, ce n'est pas la bonté; si elle a des effets, une récompense, ce n'est pas non plus la bonté. So goodness is outside the chain of cause and effect.

"And yet I know it, and we all know it. "What could be a greater miracle than that? "Can I have found the solution of it all? can my sufferings be over?" thought Levin, striding along the dusty road, not noticing the heat nor his weariness, and experiencing a sense of relief from prolonged suffering. This feeling was so delicious that it seemed to him incredible. He was breathless with emotion and incapable of going farther; he turned off the road into the forest and lay down in the shade of an aspen on the uncut grass. Il était essoufflé d'émotion et incapable d'aller plus loin; il quitta la route dans la forêt et s'allongea à l'ombre d'un tremble sur l'herbe non coupée. He took his hat off his hot head and lay propped on his elbow in the lush, feathery, woodland grass. Il enleva son chapeau de sa tête brûlante et s'allongea sur son coude dans l'herbe luxuriante et plumeuse des bois.

"Yes, I must make it clear to myself and understand," he thought, looking intently at the untrampled grass before him, and following the movements of a green beetle, advancing along a blade of couch-grass and lifting up in its progress a leaf of goat-weed. «Oui, je dois me faire comprendre et comprendre», pensa-t-il, regardant attentivement l'herbe non échantillonnée devant lui, et suivant les mouvements d'un scarabée vert, avançant le long d'un brin de chiendent et soulevant dans sa progression un feuille d'herbe de chèvre. „Taip, aš turiu tai aiškiai pasakyti sau ir suprasti“, - pagalvojo jis įdėmiai žvelgdamas į priešais nesutramdytą žolę ir sekdamas žalio vabalo judesius, žengdamas palei sofos žolės ašmenį ir pakeldamas jo eigą. ožkų piktžolių lapas. "What have I discovered?" he asked himself, bending aside the leaf of goat-weed out of the beetle's way and twisting another blade of grass above for the beetle to cross over onto it. se demanda-t-il en écartant la feuille d'herbe de chèvre hors du chemin du scarabée et en tordant un autre brin d'herbe au-dessus pour que le scarabée passe dessus. "What is it makes me glad? What have I discovered?

"I have discovered nothing. I have only found out what I knew. I understand the force that in the past gave me life, and now too gives me life. I have been set free from falsity, I have found the Master. J'ai été libéré de la fausseté, j'ai trouvé le Maître.

"Of old I used to say that in my body, that in the body of this grass and of this beetle (there, she didn't care for the grass, she's opened her wings and flown away), there was going on a transformation of matter in accordance with physical, chemical, and physiological laws. «Jadis je disais que dans mon corps, que dans le corps de cette herbe et de ce scarabée (là, elle ne se souciait pas de l'herbe, elle a ouvert ses ailes et s'envole), il y avait une transformation de la matière conformément aux lois physiques, chimiques et physiologiques. And in all of us, as well as in the aspens and the clouds and the misty patches, there was a process of evolution. Evolution from what? into what?—Eternal evolution and struggle…. As though there could be any sort of tendency and struggle in the eternal! And I was astonished that in spite of the utmost effort of thought along that road I could not discover the meaning of life, the meaning of my impulses and yearnings. Et j'ai été étonné qu'en dépit du plus grand effort de réflexion le long de cette route, je ne pouvais pas découvrir le sens de la vie, le sens de mes pulsions et de mes aspirations. Now I say that I know the meaning of my life: 'To live for God, for my soul.' And this meaning, in spite of its clearness, is mysterious and marvelous. Such, indeed, is the meaning of everything existing. Tel est en effet le sens de tout ce qui existe. Yes, pride," he said to himself, turning over on his stomach and beginning to tie a noose of blades of grass, trying not to break them. Oui, fierté, se dit-il en se retournant sur le ventre et en commençant à nouer un nœud de brins d'herbe, essayant de ne pas les casser. "And not merely pride of intellect, but dulness of intellect. «Et pas seulement la fierté de l'intellect, mais la morosité de l'intellect. And most of all, the deceitfulness; yes, the deceitfulness of intellect. The cheating knavishness of intellect, that's it," he said to himself. La fourberie de l'intellect, c'est tout », se dit-il. De bedrieglijke schurkheid van intellect, dat is het, 'zei hij bij zichzelf. And he briefly went through, mentally, the whole course of his ideas during the last two years, the beginning of which was the clear confronting of death at the sight of his dear brother hopelessly ill.

Then, for the first time, grasping that for every man, and himself too, there was nothing in store but suffering, death, and forgetfulness, he had made up his mind that life was impossible like that, and that he must either interpret life so that it would not present itself to him as the evil jest of some devil, or shoot himself. Puis, pour la première fois, saisissant que pour chaque homme, et pour lui aussi, il n'y avait rien d'autre en réserve que la souffrance, la mort et l'oubli, il s'était décidé que la vie était impossible comme ça, et qu'il fallait soit interpréter la vie. afin qu'il ne se présente pas à lui comme la mauvaise plaisanterie de quelque démon, ou ne se tire pas dessus.

But he had not done either, but had gone on living, thinking, and feeling, and had even at that very time married, and had had many joys and had been happy, when he was not thinking of the meaning of his life.

What did this mean? It meant that he had been living rightly, but thinking wrongly.

He had lived (without being aware of it) on those spiritual truths that he had sucked in with his mother's milk, but he had thought, not merely without recognition of these truths, but studiously ignoring them. Il avait vécu (sans s'en rendre compte) de ces vérités spirituelles qu'il avait aspirées avec le lait de sa mère, mais il avait pensé, non seulement sans reconnaître ces vérités, mais en les ignorant scrupuleusement. Now it was clear to him that he could only live by virtue of the beliefs in which he had been brought up.

"What should I have been, and how should I have spent my life, if I had not had these beliefs, if I had not known that I must live for God and not for my own desires? «Qu'aurais-je dû être et comment aurais-je passé ma vie, si je n'avais pas eu ces croyances, si je n'avais pas su que je devais vivre pour Dieu et non pour mes propres désirs? I should have robbed and lied and killed. Nothing of what makes the chief happiness of my life would have existed for me." And with the utmost stretch of imagination he could not conceive the brutal creature he would have been himself, if he had not known what he was living for. Et avec le plus grand effort d'imagination, il ne pouvait pas concevoir la créature brutale qu'il aurait été lui-même, s'il n'avait pas su pourquoi il vivait.

"I looked for an answer to my question. And thought could not give an answer to my question—it is incommensurable with my question. The answer has been given me by life itself, in my knowledge of what is right and what is wrong. And that knowledge I did not arrive at in any way, it was given to me as to all men, given , because I could not have got it from anywhere.

"Where could I have got it? By reason could I have arrived at knowing that I must love my neighbor and not oppress him? I was told that in my childhood, and I believed it gladly, for they told me what was already in my soul. But who discovered it? Not reason. Reason discovered the struggle for existence, and the law that requires us to oppress all who hinder the satisfaction of our desires. La raison a découvert la lutte pour l'existence et la loi qui nous oblige à opprimer tous ceux qui entravent la satisfaction de nos désirs. That is the deduction of reason. But loving one's neighbor reason could never discover, because it's irrational." Tačiau mylėti artimą niekada negalėjo atrasti, nes tai neracionalu “.