Anna Karenina — Chapter 158 in French
By Leo Tolstoy
Sur la terrasse où les dames se réunissaient volontiers après le dîner, on se livrait ce jour-là à une grave occupation. All the women were gathered on the terrace. They generally liked to sit there after dinner, but to-day they had a special matter of interest before them. Outre la confection de la layette du futur bébé, à laquelle tous travaillaient, on y faisait des confitures d’après une recette nouvelle pour Agafia Mikhaïlovna : sans y mettre d’eau. Besides the making of baby-shirts and the knitting of bands, in which all of them were engaged at that time, they were engaged in superintending the cooking of some preserves after a recipe unknown to Agafya Mikhaïlovna. Kitty tenait à imposer cette recette, pratiquée chez sa mère. Kitty had brought with her this new process, which had been in use in her own home and required no water. Agafia Mikhaïlovna, à qui incombait cette besogne, persuadée que la méthode en usage chez les Lévine ne pouvait être mauvaise, avait cependant mis de l’eau pour faire la confiture de fraises, affirmant qu’on ne pouvait faire autrement. Agafya Mikhaïlovna, who had before been shown how to do it in this way, considering that what had always been done at the Levins' could not be improved on, insisted on pouring water into the berries, declaring it could not be made otherwise. On s’en était aperçu et on l’avait obligée à faire la confiture de framboise devant témoins ; elle verrait alors que sans eau la confiture est également bonne. She had been detected doing this, and now the berries were cooking in the presence of them all, and Agafya Mikhaïlovna was to be brought to a realizing sense of the fact that the preserves could be made without the use of water.
Agafia Mikhaïlovna, rouge, mécontente, les cheveux en désordre, ses bras maigres nus jusqu’aux coudes, tournait la bassine à confitures au dessus d’un réchaud ; d’un air méchant elle regardait la framboise, désirant de tout son cœur que la confiture ne réussît pas. Agafya Mikhaïlovna, with flushed and heated face and disheveled hair and with her sleeves rolled up to the elbow, was moving a porringer round and round over a portable stove and looking gloomily at it, wishing with all her soul that the berries would thicken and not boil.
La vieille princesse, à qui était due l’introduction de cette nouvelle méthode, sentant peser sur elle la colère d’Agafia Mikhaïlovna, feignait de ne pas s’occuper de la confiture ; elle causait avec ses filles d’un air indifférent, mais surveillait la bonne du coin de l’œil. The old princess, conscious that Agafya Mikhaïlovna's indignation must be directed against her as the chief adviser in the concoction of the sweetmeat, pretended that she was busy with something else, and was not interested in it; but though she talked of extraneous affairs she occasionally glanced at the cooking out of the corner of her eyes.
— Moi, j’achète toujours moi-même l’étoffe pour les femmes de chambre… disait la princesse continuant la conversation commencée… Il faudrait peut-être écumer, ma chère ? "I always buy my girls' dresses at a cheap shop," the princess was saying in regard to something they had been talking about. — Il faudrait peut-être écumer, ma chère ? ajouta-t-elle s'adressant à Agafia Mikhaïlovna. .... "Had n't you better take off the scum, my dear?" ajouta-t-elle s’adressant à Agafia Mikhaïlovna. she added, addressing Agafya Mikhaïlovna. Tu n’as pas besoin de le faire ; c’est trop chaud… dit-elle arrêtant Kitty. "It is not at all necessary for you to do it, and it is hot," said she, stopping Kitty.