Germinal — Chapter 37 in French
By Émile Zola
À quatre heures, la descente commença. AT four o'clock the descent began. Dansaert, installé en personne au bureau du marqueur, dans la lampisterie, inscrivait chaque ouvrier qui se présentait, et lui faisait donner une lampe. Dansaert, who was personally installed at the marker's office in the lamp cabin, wrote down the name of each worker who presented himself and had a lamp given to him. Il les prenait tous, sans une observation, tenant la promesse des affiches. He took them all, without remark, keeping to the promise of the placards. Cependant, lorsqu’il aperçut au guichet Étienne et Catherine, il eut un sursaut, très rouge, la bouche ouverte pour refuser l’inscription ; puis, il se contenta de triompher, d’un air goguenard : ah ! When, however, he noticed Étienne and Catherine at the wicket, he started and became very red, and was opening his mouth to refuse their names; then, he contented himself with the triumph, and a jeer. ah ! Ah! ah! alors le costaud a été jeté ? so the strong man was thrown? la Compagnie avait donc du bon, que le terrible tombeur de Montsou revenait lui demander du pain ? The Company was, then, in luck since the terrible Monstou wrestler had come back to it to ask for bread? Silencieux, Étienne emporta sa lampe et monta au puits, avec la herscheuse. Étienne silently took his lamp and went towards the shaft with the putter.
Mais c’était là, dans la salle de recette, que Catherine craignait les mauvaises paroles des camarades. But it was there, in the receiving-room, that Catherine feared the mates' bad words. Justement, dès l’entrée, elle reconnut Chaval au milieu d’une vingtaine de mineurs, attendant qu’une cage fût libre. At the very entrance she recognised Chaval, in the midst of some twenty miners, waiting till a cage was free. Il s’avançait furieusement vers elle, lorsque la vue d’Étienne l’arrêta. He came furiously towards her, but the sight of Étienne stopped him. Alors, il affecta de ricaner, avec des haussements d’épaules outrageux. Then he affected to sneer with an offensive shrug of the shoulders. Très bien ! Very good! il s’en foutait, du moment que l’autre avait occupé la place toute chaude ; bon débarras ! he didn't care a hang, since the other had come to occupy the place that was still warm; good riddance! ça regardait le monsieur, s’il aimait les restes ; et, sous l’étalage de ce dédain, il était repris d’un tremblement de jalousie, ses yeux flambaient. It only concerned the gentleman if he liked the leavings; and beneath the exhibition of this contempt he was again seized by a tremor of jealousy, and his eyes flamed. D’ailleurs, les camarades ne bougeaient pas, muets, les yeux baissés. For the rest, the mates did not stir, standing silent, with eyes lowered. Ils se contentaient de jeter un regard oblique aux nouveaux venus ; puis, abattus et sans colère, ils se remettaient à regarder fixement la bouche du puits, leur lampe à la main, grelottant sous la mince toile de leur veste, dans les courants d’air continus de la grande salle. They contented themselves with casting a sidelong look at the newcomers; then, dejected and without anger, they again stared fixedly at the mouth of the shaft, with their lamps in their hands, shivering beneath their thin jackets in the constant draughts of this large room. Enfin, la cage se cala sur les verrous, on leur cria d’embarquer. At last the cage was wedged on to the keeps, and they were ordered to get in. Catherine et Étienne se tassèrent dans une berline, où Pierron et deux haveurs se trouvaient déjà. Catherine and Étienne were squeezed in one tram, already containing Pierron and two pikemen. À côté, dans l’autre berline, Chaval disait au père Mouque, très haut, que la Direction avait bien tort de ne pas profiter de l’occasion pour débarrasser les fosses des chenapans qui les pourrissaient ; mais le vieux palefrenier, déjà retombé à la résignation de sa chienne d’existence, ne se fâchait plus de la mort de ses enfants, répondait simplement d’un geste de conciliation. Beside them, in the other tram, Chaval was loudly saying to Father Mouque that the directors had made a mistake in not taking advantage of the opportunity to free the the pits of the blackguards who were corrupting them; but the old groom, who had already fallen back into the dog-like resignation of his existence, no longer grew angry over the death of his children, and simply replied by a gesture of conciliation.
La cage se décrocha, on fila dans le noir. The cage freed itself and slipped down into the darkness. Personne ne parlait. No one spoke. Tout d’un coup, comme on était aux deux tiers de la descente, il y eut un frottement terrible. Suddenly, when they were in the middle third of the descent, there was a terrible jarring. Les fers craquaient, les hommes furent jetés les uns contre les autres. The iron creaked, and the men were thrown on to each other.
— Nom de Dieu ! "By God!" gronda Étienne, est-ce qu’ils vont nous aplatir ? growled Étienne, "are they going to flatten us? Nous finirons par tous y rester, avec leur sacré cuvelage. We shall end by being left here for good, with their confounded tubbing. Et ils disent encore qu’ils l’ont réparé ! And they talk about having repaired it!"