Anna Karenina — Chapter 227 in French
By Leo Tolstoy
Depuis que, assis auprès de son frère mourant, Lévine avait examiné le problème de la vie et de la mort à la lumière de ces nouvelles convictions, comme il les appelait, qui de vingt à trente-quatre ans avaient remplacé les croyances de son enfance. Ever since that moment when, as he sat beside his dying brother. Depuis qu’à la vue de son frère aimé agonisant Lévine avait envisagé pour la première fois les questions de la vie et de la mort à travers ce qu’il appelait ses nouvelles convictions, qui, imperceptiblement pour lui, dans la période de vingt à trente-quatre ans, avaient remplacé ses croyances d’enfant et d’adolescent, il était horrifié moins devant la mort que devant la vie. Levin had examined the problem of life and death in the light of the new convictions, as he called them, which from the age of twenty to thirty-four years had taken the place of his childhood's beliefs, he was terrified not only at death, but at life; because it seemed to him that he had not the slightest knowledge of its origin, its purpose, its reason, its nature. L’organisme, sa destruction, l’éternité de la matière, la loi de la conservation de l’énergie, le développement, tels étaient les mots qui remplaçaient sa foi ancienne. Our organism and its destruction, the indestructibility of matter, the laws of the conservation and development of forces, were words which were substituted for the terms of his early faith. Ces mots et les idées qui s’y rattachaient étaient excellents pour un but intellectuel mais pour la vie ils ne donnaient rien. These words, and the scientific theories connected with them, were doubtless interesting from an intellectual point of view, but they stood for nothing in the face of real life.
Lévine se sentait donc dans la situation d’un homme qui a changé sa pelisse chaude contre un vêtement de mousseline et qui, à la première gelée, s’aperçoit, non par le raisonnement mais par tout son être, qu’il est nu et qu’infailliblement il mourra de froid. And Levin suddenly felt in the position of a man who in cold weather had exchanged his warm shuba for a muslin garment, and who for the first time should indubitably, not with his reason, but with his whole being, become persuaded that he was absolutely naked, and inevitably destined to perish miserably.
Depuis ce moment, bien que ne s’en rendant pas compte et continuant à vivre comme auparavant, Lévine ne cessait de ressentir cette crainte de son ignorance. From that time, without in the least changing his outward life, and though he did not like to confess it, even to himself, Levin never ceased to feel a terror of his ignorance.
En outre, il percevait vaguement que ce qu’il appelait ses convictions était non seulement de l’ignorance mais une orientation de la pensée telle qu’elle lui rendait impossible l’acquisition des connaissances qui lui étaient nécessaires. Moreover, he vaguely felt that what he called his convictions not only came from his ignorance, but were idle for helping him to a clearer knowledge of what he needed.