Anna Karenina — Chapter 52 in French
By Leo Tolstoy
Malgré que toute la vie intérieure de Vronskï fût remplie par sa passion, sa vie extérieure, sans changement ni frein, suivait la voie ancienne, habituelle des relations et des intérêts du monde et du régiment. Although Vronsky's inner life was wholly absorbed by his passion, his outward life unchangeably and inevitably ran along on the former ordinary rails of his social and regimental ties and interests. Les intérêts du régiment tenaient pour Vronskï une place importante, premièrement parce qu’il aimait son régiment et ensuite parce qu’il en était aimé. His regiment filled an important part in his life, in the first place because he loved his regiment, and, still more, because he was extremely popular in it. Au régiment, non seulement on l’aimait, mais on le respectait et on était fier de lui. In his regiment he was not only admired, but he was also respected. On était fier que cet homme immensément riche, très instruit, très intelligent, ayant ouverts devant lui les chemins des succès de toutes sortes, de l’amour et de l’ambition, négligeât tout cela et les intérêts mondains pour prendre à cœur les intérêts du régiment et des camarades. They were proud of him, proud that a man enormously rich, with a fine education and with qualities, with a path open before him to every kind of success and ambition and glorification, scorned all that, and placed the interests of his regiment and his comrades above all the interests of life. Vronskï savait ce que pensaient de lui ses camarades, et, outre qu’il aimait cette vie, il se sentait obligé d’être digne de l’opinion qu’on avait de lui. Vronksy recognized the feeling which he inspired, and, besides the fact that he loved that life, he felt called on, in a certain degree, to sustain his character.
Naturellement il ne parlait à personne de sa passion. Of course he spoke to no one of his passion. Naturellement il ne parlait à personne de son amour, il ne se trahissait pas, même au milieu des débauches auxquelles il prenait part (il ne buvait jamais assez pour perdre toute conscience de lui-même), et il fermait la bouche à ceux de ses camarades qui essayaient de faire quelque allusion à sa liaison. Never did an imprudent word escape him, even when he joined his comrades in the liveliest of drinking-bouts,—however, he was never so intoxicated as to lose control over himself,—and he kept his mouth shut in the presence of those gossiping meddlers who made the least allusion to the affairs of his heart. Mais, malgré cela, son amour était connu de toute la ville. Tous étaient plus ou moins au courant de ses relations avec madame Karénine. Nevertheless, his passion was a matter of notoriety throughout the city; all had more or less well-founded suspicions of his relationship to Madame Karenin, and most of the young men envied him on account of the very thing that was the greatest drawback to his love,—Karenin's high station, which made the matter more conspicuous.
La majorité des jeunes femmes qui entouraient Anna, et qui depuis longtemps étaient agacées de l’entendre appeler « juste », se réjouissaient de la situation qu’elles supposaient et n’attendaient que le revirement de l’opinion publique pour l’écraser de tout le poids de leur mépris. Elles préparaient déjà les mottes de boue qu’elles lui jetteraient quand le moment serait venu. The majority of young women, jealous of Anna, whom they were weary of hearing always called the just, were not sorry to have their predictions verified, and were waiting only for the sanction of public opinion, to overwhelm her with the whole weight of their scorn; they had already prepared for use the mud which should be thrown at her when the time should come. La plupart des gens âgés et des personnages importants étaient mécontents de la publicité du scandale qui se préparait. Most people of experience, and those of high rank, were displeased at the prospect of a disgraceful scandal in society.
La mère de Vronskï, en apprenant sa liaison, s’en était d’abord réjouie, parce que, selon elle, rien ne donnait plus de relief à un jeune homme brillant qu’une liaison dans le grand monde, et parce que madame Karénine, qui lui avait tant plu et avait tant parlé de son fils, était vraiment, au point de vue de la comtesse Vronskï, une belle femme élégante ; mais par la suite, ayant appris que son fils refusait un poste, très important pour son avenir, à seule fin de rester au régiment et de continuer à voir madame Karénine, et qu’en raison de ce refus des personnages haut placés lui tenaient rigueur, elle changea d’opinion. Vronsky's mother, when she heard of the liaison, at first was glad; because, in her opinion, nothing gave the last finish to a brilliant young man compared to an intrigue in high life; and because she was not sorry to find that this Madame Karenin, who had pleased her so much and who seemed so entirely devoted to her boy, was, after all, only like any other handsome and elegant woman. des personnages haut placés lui tenaient rigueur, et elle changea d'avis à ce sujet. But later she learned that her son had refused an important promotion, for no other reason than that he might stay with his regiment and keep on visiting Madame Karenin, and she learned that, on account of this, persons very high in authority were dissatisfied with him, and she changed her opinion in regard to it.