Anna Karenina — Chapter 208 in French
By Leo Tolstoy
Comme toujours, Stépan Arkadiévitch ne perdait pas son temps à Pétersbourg. Stepan Arkadyevitch, as usual, did not waste his time at Petersburg. Outre ses affaires, le divorce de sa sœur, sa place, il devait se rafraîchir, comme il disait, après le calme de Moscou. He had not only his business to attend to: his sister's divorce and his new position to look after; but, moreover, as he said, to refresh himself after musty Moscow.
Moscou, malgré ses cafés chantants et ses omnibus, était en somme une vraie mare. For Moscow, in spite of its cafés-chantants, and its omnibuses, was still only a stagnant marsh. Quand il y restait trop longtemps, surtout dans sa famille, Stépan Arkadiévitch sentait s’envoler sa bonne humeur. Stepan Arkadyevitch always felt that this was so. Living in Moscow, especially in proximity to his family, he was conscious that his spirit flagged. Il arrivait à un tel point qu’il commençait à s’inquiéter de la mauvaise humeur et des reproches de sa femme, de la santé et de l’éducation des enfants, des petits intérêts de son service, et ce fait qu’il avait des dettes l’ennuyait. When his life in Moscow was long unbroken by a trip to Petersburg, he even began to be annoyed by his wife's bad temper and reproaches, and to worry over his health, the education of his children, and the petty details of the household. Il allait même jusqu'à s'inquiéter de ses dettes. He even went so far as to be disturbed about his debts.
Mais il lui suffisait de venir pour quelque temps à Pétersbourg, dans ce cercle où on vivait, au lieu de végéter comme à Moscou, pour voir aussitôt tous ses soucis disparaître et fondre comme la cire au feu. As soon as he set foot in Petersburg, and entered that circle where life was really life, and not vegetating, as in Moscow, immediately all such thoughts disappeared like wax in the fire.
Aujourd’hui, à l’instant, il avait causé avec le prince Tchetchenski. He had just been talking with Prince Chetchensky. Celui-ci avait une femme, de grands fils qui étaient pages, et une autre famille, illégitime, dans laquelle il avait aussi des enfants. Prince Chetchensky had a wife and family,—grown-up boys, pages now; and he had another establishment, outside the law, and in this also there were children. Bien que la première famille fût charmante. But, though the first family was well enough in its way. Bien que la première famille fût charmante, il se sentait plus heureux dans la deuxième famille où il conduisait son fils aîné, racontant à Stépan Arkadiévitch qu’il trouvait cela utile pour le développement de son fils. Prince Chetchensky felt happier with his second family; and he had introduced his oldest legitimate son into his other family; he told Stepan Arkadyevitch he considered it a good way to train him and develop him. Qu’aurait-on dit de cela à Moscou ? What would have been said about that in Moscow?