Anna Karenina — Chapter 26 in French
By Leo Tolstoy
Le lendemain matin. Constantin Lévine quitta Moscou et vers le soir arriva chez lui. The next forenoon Levin left Moscow, and toward evening was at home. Pendant le voyage, il avait causé avec ses compagnons de route de la politique et des nouveaux chemins de fer, et, comme à Moscou, il éprouvait de l’embrouillement dans les idées, un certain mécontentement de lui-même et une honte qu’il ne savait comment expliquer. On the journey he talked with those near him in the train about politics, about the new railroads; and, just as in Moscow, he was overcome by the chaos of conflicting opinions, self-dissatisfaction, and a sense of shame. Mais quand il descendit à sa station, et qu’il reconnut son cocher, le brave Ignace, avec le col de son caftan relevé, quand il aperçut dans la faible lumière qui traversait les vitres de la gare, son traîneau avec son tablier de tapisserie, et ses chevaux avec leurs queues ficelées et leurs grelots, quand le cocher Ignace, tout en chargeant la malle dans le traîneau, lui raconta les nouvelles du pays, l’arrivée de l’entrepreneur, et lui annonça que Pava, sa plus belle vache avait vêlé, il sentit ses idées s’éclaircir peu à peu, sa honte et son mécontentement s’effacer. But when he got out at his station, and perceived his one-eyed coachman, Ignat, with his kaftan collar turned up; when he saw, in the dim light that fell through the station windows, his covered sledge and his horses with their tied-up tails, and their harness with its rings and fringes; when Ignat, as he was tucking in the robes, told him all the news of the village, about the coming of the contractor, and how Pava the cow had calved,—then it seemed to him that the chaos resolved itself a little, and his shame and dissatisfaction passed away. Il endossa le touloupe qu’on lui avait apporté, s’assit dans le traîneau, s’enveloppa, et partit en songeant aux ordres à donner en rentrant ; quand il regarda le cheval de volée, un ancien cheval de selle du Don, maintenant usé mais qui avait été beau, il commença à comprendre tout à fait autrement ce qui lui était arrivé. This he felt at the very sight of Ignat and his horses; but, as soon as he had put on his sheepskin tulup, which he found in the sleigh, and took his seat in the sleigh comfortably wrapped up, and drove off thinking what arrangement he should have to make in the village, and at the same time examining the off-horse, Donskaya, which used to be his saddle-horse, a jaded but mettlesome steed, he began to view his experiences in an absolutely different light.
Il se sentit à sa place, et résolut de s’accommoder de sa situation présente ; il ne désirait plus qu’une chose : devenir meilleur qu’il n’avait été jusque-là. He felt himself again, and no longer wished to be a different person. He only wished to be better than he had ever been before. Premièrement, il décida, à dater de ce jour, de ne plus songer au bonheur extraordinaire que devait lui donner le mariage et, par conséquent, de moins négliger le présent ; deuxièmement, de ne plus jamais se laisser entraîner par les mauvaises passions dont le souvenir l’avait fait tant souffrir quand il se préparait à faire sa déclaration ; enfin, de ne plus oublier son frère Nicolas. In the first place, he resolved from that day forth that he would never expect extraordinary joys, such as marriage had promised to bring to him, and therefore he would never again despise the present; and, in the second place, he would never allow himself to be led away by low passion, the remembrances of which so tortured him while he was deciding to make his proposal. Il se promettait de ne jamais l’oublier, de le suivre, de ne pas le perdre de vue, afin d’être prêt à l’aider quand il en aurait besoin, ce qui, il n’en pouvait douter, arriverait bientôt. And lastly, as he thought of his brother Nikolaï, he resolved that he would never again forget him, but that he would keep track of him and not let him out of sight, so that he might be in readiness to aid him whenever the evil moment arrived, and that seemed likely to be very soon.
La conversation sur le communisme qu’il avait si légèrement traité avec son frère le faisait aussi réfléchir. Then the conversation about communism, which he had so lightly treated with his brother, came back to him, and made him reflect. Il ne croyait point à la transformation des conditions économiques, mais il avait toujours senti l’injustice de son abondance en comparaison de la pauvreté du peuple, et il se promettait, pour agir selon sa conscience, — bien qu’il eût toujours beaucoup travaillé et vécu sans luxe, — de travailler à l’avenir davantage et de vivre encore plus simplement. A reform of economic conditions seemed to him nonsense, but he always felt the unfair difference between his own superfluity and the poverty of the people, and in order that he might feel perfectly right, he now vowed that though hitherto he had worked hard, and lived economically, he would in the future work still harder, and permit himself even less luxury than ever. Et tout cela lui semblait si facile à réaliser que tout le long de la route il s’abandonna aux rêves les plus agréables ; et c’est le cœur plein de l’espoir d’une vie nouvelle et meilleure, qu’il arriva chez lui à huit heures du soir. And all this seemed to him so easy to accomplish that, throughout the drive from the station, he was the subject of the pleasantest illusions. With a hearty feeling of hope for a new and better life, he reached home just as the clock was striking ten.
Des fenêtres de la chambre d’Agafia Mikhaïlovna, la vieille bonne qui remplissait chez lui les fonctions de gouvernante, la lumière tombait sur la neige qui couvrait le petit perron. From the windows of the room occupied by his old nurse, Agafya Mikhaïlovna, who fulfilled the functions of housekeeper, the light fell on the snow-covered walk before his house. Elle ne dormait pas encore. She was not yet asleep. Kouzma, éveillé par elle, accourut à la porte, endormi et pieds nus. Kuzma, wakened by her, hurried down, barefooted and sleepy, to open the door. La chienne de chasse Laska, en renversant presque Kouzma, bondit aussi ; jappant et se frottant contre les jambes de son maître, elle se dressait avec le désir apparent de lui poser ses pattes sur la poitrine mais n’osait le faire. Laska, the setter, almost knocking Kuzma down in her desire to get ahead of him, ran to meet her master, and jumped upon him, trying to place her fore paws on his breast.