Anna Karenina — Chapter 2 in French
By Leo Tolstoy
Stépan Arkadiévitch était un homme franc avec lui-même. Stepan Arkadyevitch was a sincere man as far as he himself was concerned. Il ne pouvait se leurrer ni se persuader qu’il se repentait de sa conduite. He could not practise self-deception and persuade himself that he repented of his behavior. Il ne pouvait se faire un crime, lui, un bel homme de trente-quatre ans, de complexion ardente, de n’être pas amoureux de sa femme, qui avait donné le jour à sept enfants, dont deux étaient morts, et qui n’avait qu’un an de moins que lui. He could not, as yet, feel sorry that he, a handsome, susceptible man of four and thirty, was not now in love with his wife, the mother of his five living and two buried children, though she was only a year his junior. Il se repentait seulement de ne pas s’être mieux caché de sa femme ; mais il sentait tout le poids de sa situation et plaignait sa femme, ses enfants et lui-même. He regretted only that he had not succeeded in hiding it better from her. But he felt the whole weight of his situation and pitied his wife, his children, and himself. Peut-être eût-il mieux caché cette faute à sa femme s’il avait pu prévoir l’effet d’un tel événement sur elle. Possibly he would have had better success in hiding his peccadilloes from his wife had he realized that this knowledge would have had such an effect upon her. Évidemment, ils n’avaient jamais discuté cette question, mais il s’imaginait vaguement que depuis longtemps sa femme soupçonnait ses infidélités et qu’elle y était indifférente. He had never before thought clearly of this question, but he had a dim idea that his wife had long been aware that he was not faithful to her, and looked at it through her fingers. Il lui semblait même que sa femme, fatiguée, déjà âgée, pas jolie ni remarquable en quoi que ce soit, tout simplement bonne mère de famille, devait en toute justice être indulgente. As she had lost her freshness, was beginning to look old, was no longer pretty and far from distinguished and entirely common-place, though she was an excellent mother of a family, he had thought that she would allow her innate sense of justice to plead for him. Et il venait de découvrir que c’était tout le contraire ! — « Ah ! But it had proved to be quite the contrary.
comme c’est terrible ! Ah ! "Akh, how wretched! répétait Stépan Arkadiévitch ; et il ne pouvait trouver d’issue. said Prince Stepan to himself over and over and could not find any way out of the difficulty. Et comme tout allait bien jusque-là ! "And how well everything was going until this happened! Comme nous étions heureux ! How delightfully we lived! Elle était contente, heureuse avec ses enfants. Je ne la gênais en rien, je la laissais s’occuper des enfants à sa guise. She was content, happy with the children; I never interfered with her in any way, I allowed her to do as she pleased with the children and the household! Ce qui est mal en effet, c’est qu’elle était gouvernante dans notre maison. Oui, ce n’est pas bien ! To be sure it was bad that she had been the governess in our own house; that was bad. Il y a quelque chose de vulgaire et de banal à faire la cour à sa gouvernante. There is something trivial and common in playing the gallant to one's own governess! Mais quelle gouvernante ! But what a governess!"
(Et il revoyait nettement, dans sa pensée, les yeux noirs et vifs et le sourire de mademoiselle Roland). He vividly recalled Mlle. Roland's black roguish eyes and her smile.
Mais tout le temps qu’elle fut à la maison je ne me suis rien permis. Et le pire de tout c’est qu’elle… C’est un fait exprès ! "But then, while she was here in the house with us, I did not permit myself any liberties. Et le pire de tout c'est qu'elle est déjà…. Il a fallu que tout cela arrive exprès pour me contrarier. And the worst of all is that she is already .... All this must needs happen just to spite me. que faire ? » But what, what is to be done?"