Anna Karenina — Chapter 104 in French
By Leo Tolstoy
Après sa rencontre avec Vronskï sur le seuil de sa maison, Alexis Alexandrovitch se rendit, comme il en avait l’intention, à l’Opéra italien. After meeting Vronsky on the porch, Alekseï Aleksandrovitch went, as he had planned, to the Italian opera. Il y entendit deux actes, et vit tous ceux qu’il avait besoin de voir. He sat through two acts, and saw every one whom he needed to see. En rentrant chez lui, il examina attentivement le vestiaire et remarquant qu’il n’y avait aucun vêtement militaire, il passa dans sa chambre. Returning home, he looked carefully at the hat-rack, and, having assured himself that there was no uniform overcoat in the vestibule, went straight to his chamber.
Mais contre son habitude, il ne se coucha pas de suite et se promena de long en large dans son cabinet, jusqu’à trois heures du matin. Contrary to his usual habit, instead of going to bed, he walked up and down his room till three o'clock in the morning. La colère qu’il ressentait contre sa femme, qui n’avait pas observé la seule condition qu’il lui eût imposée, à savoir de ne pas recevoir son amant chez elle, ne lui laissait pas de repos. Anger kept him awake, for he could not forgive his wife for not being willing to observe the proprieties, and for not fulfilling the one condition that he had imposed on her,—that she should not receive her lover in his house. Elle n’avait pas respecté cette condition, il était donc résolu à la châtier et à mettre à exécution la menace qu’il lui avait faite de divorcer et de lui prendre son fils. She had not complied with his requirement, and he felt bound to punish her, carry out his threat, demand a divorce, and take away his son from her. Il n’ignorait pas toutes les diflicultés que comportait cette décision, néanmoins sa résolution était prise, il ne lui restait plus désormais qu’à exécuter sa menace. He knew all the difficulties that would attend this action, but he had said that he should do it, and now he was bound to carry out his threat. La comtesse Lydia Ivanovna lui avait laissé entendre que c’était la meilleure solution à apporter à sa situation, et les derniers temps, la pratique du divorce s’était tellement perfectionnée qu’Alexis Alexandrovitch entrevoyait la possibilité de vaincre les principales difficultés de forme. The Countess Lidia had often said that this was the easiest way out of his position; and recently the practice of divorce had reached such a pitch of perfection that Alekseï Aleksandrovitch saw in it a means of escaping its formal difficulties.
Mais un malheur n’arrive jamais seul ; l’affaire des populations allogènes et celle de l’épandage des champs de la province de Zaraïsk avaient occasionné tant de désagréments de service à Alexis Alexandrovitch, que depuis quelque temps il était dans un état d’irritation extrême. Moreover, misfortunes never come single; and the trouble arising from the organization of the foreign population, and the irrigation of the fields in the government of Zaraï, had caused Alekseï Aleksandrovitch so much unpleasantness in his office that for some time he had been in a perpetual state of irritation.
Il ne dormit pas de la nuit, et sa colère n’en fit que s’accroître, si bien qu’au matin, elle avait atteint les dernières limites. He passed the night without sleeping, and his anger increasing all the while in a sort of colossal system of progression, by morning was directed even to the most trivial object. Il s’habilla hâtivement et se rendit chez sa femme dès qu’il la sut levée. He dressed hastily, and went to Anna as soon as he knew she was up. On eût dit que sa colère emplissait jusqu’au bord une tasse qu’il craignait de voir déborder, redoutant de perdre, en même temps que cette colère, l’énergie dont il avait besoin pour l’explication qu’il était décidé à provoquer. He was afraid of losing the energy which he needed for his explanation with his wife; it was as if he carried a full cup of wrath and was afraid of spilling it.